Amazon Standard Identification Number

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The Amazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN) is a product identification number used by Amazon.com. Despite the name, it is not a "standard" in any real sense, as it is valid only for referring to products within the Amazon.com network of sites.

Each product sold on Amazon.com is given a unique ASIN. For books with an ISBN, the ASIN and the ISBN are the same. Books without an ISBN and other products are also assigned ASINs. ASINs are also used for other items used by Amazon.com (and subsidiaries), such as businesses in the yellow pages (on A9.com) and OpenSearch feeds.

On Amazon's USA-targeted web site, a product's Web address (URL) always contains its ASIN, and, given the ASIN, a user can construct the product's URL in the following manner (as of August 2006):

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/ASIN-VALUE-HERE

The former format was http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/ASIN-VALUE-HERE.

Therefore the URL on Amazon for the paperback of Strunk, White, and Roger Angell's The Elements of Style, 4th Edition, whose ISBN is 020530902X, is:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/020530902X

A shorter form of the URL for most products is:

http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/ASIN-VALUE-HERE

So the URL for Elements of Style, 4th Edition would become:

http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/020530902X

Similar URLs can be constructed for Amazon sites in other countries, such as:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/o/ASIN/020530902X

http://www.amazon.de/o/ASIN/020530902X

http://www.amazon.fr/o/ASIN/020530902X

Although note that not all sites carry all titles - ASIN 393206402X is only available on the German version of Amazon.