Amazon URL's: A page from Amazon's play book.
Watching Amazon battle it out with the other Silicon Valley heavy weights has been a true pleasure over the years. There is always something to learn from watching the monstrous amount of work force they put into running an e-commerce store.
For example - their URL's.
https://www.amazon.com/s?rh=
k:-assdhjkadhjkhscue,
n:3375251,
p_n_condition-type:6503254011,
p_72:2661618011,
p_85:2470955011
&page=6
&bbn=2619526011
&ie=UTF8
&qid=1387193124
&rnid=2619526011
rh denotes the factors of query.
k = keyword,
n = category (Sports & Outdoors in this case)
p_n_condition-type = new/used
p_72 = 4 or more stars
p_85 = prime eligible
page = pagination offset(page nos).
qid = the timestamp when the query result was generated.
bbn = browse node numbers.Amazon uses a hierarchy of nodes with a number to the hierarchy to represent collections of items. Each number given is a browse node number.
rnid = random id for browsing the node.
ie=utf8 = UTF-8 page encoding format.In this case - the URL's are configured in such a way to collect as much data as possible and store said data on servers for better preservation.
Well, recently Amazon is going a step further and solidified your entire browsing experience to a unique identifier that is slapped on your profile and passed on to your device despite clearing cookies.
This means that Amazon is compiling a lot more than what was posted above, creating a reference, calling said reference, creating a user profile and comparing to any future devices matching said references to said profile. If it is a match, it re-applies your user ID and continues to track your engagement with the site regardless of what browser you use and however many times you've cleared your cookies.
This technique is already being put out into the public through Google Analytics with their recent Beta 'Signals' and has been around for about 5 years. Possibly longer since the biggest crux on mobile when it came out for companies was "how do we tie the sessions?".
For small store owners - identifying and sifting through customer interactions in real time is crucial to both brick & online commerce. Otherwise you lose the opportunity to serve a customers needs by being ignorant to their desires.