SAGE & Amazon & E-Bay

SAGE proviodes the threadbare search engine to the so-called professional journals of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. It is so obsessed with selling (your basket is empty) that it has now become impossible to search for the older material held in the Procedings, even if this available free from charge, or for that matter if one feels driven to make a purchase.

Similarly, Amazon is attempting to elbow itself into the role formerly occupied by the major online catalogues (catalogs) provided by the British Library and Library of Congress. It makes many mistakes and does not monitor its subsidiaries  who provide the INCORRECT items when purchases are attempted; and such agents seem ill-equipped to respond.

E-Bay has a similar disregard for what is traded: a recent purchase of a Kindle arrived poorly packed and lacked a connection to power it up. There was little evidance of who the supplier was.