Ever noticed how people just automatically link to an Amazon entry when they are discussing a book online? Why has Amazon become the de facto standard authority on books? ...
My problem is that they are a retail establishment that are geared toward selling the product that most people are referencing and are not going to offer anything other than marketing hype on the book. There are other sources that should be linked to as a reference for a book. By now everyone ought to know that a book can be purchased at Amazon or Barnes & Nobles or Books-a-Million online so why not point to a true reference for the book rather than a bookseller?
I link to Amazon pages when I discuss books on here because those are what AllConsuming sees. I tried using salted isbn.nu and AllConsuming URLs, which are supposed to work, but I didn't see AllConsuming pick them up. Maybe we can see: I still haven't got around to looking at either LISP 3d ed or Common Lisp: The Language in earnest.
I also recall seeing several poor reviews of items on Amazon, so I don't agree that they "are not going to offer anything other than marketing hype on the book." If it's really a bad book, Amazon will want to tell you, so when you know you do want to buy a book, you'll go to them. I never look at B&N first because according to prior experience they won't tell me the first thing about any book I might want. Amazon will tell me what books the book is like, and give me reader reviews if anyone has left any.
I can definitely see Amazon leveraging being the default book URI using TrackBack or referrer tracking or something. I don't think it's in their interest to lock up discussion of a book title--they drive sales by being the focal point of community, and if they lie about the book, they won't be the focal point of community. (Well, with the momentum they have it would take a while for that to change, but still, it would happen.)
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They did show.