Amazon Standard Identification Number

An Amazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN) is a 10-character  assigned by  and its partners for product identification within the Amazon organization. They were originated in 1996 by Rebecca Allen, an Amazon software engineer, when it became clear that Amazon was going to sell products other than books. The 10-character format of the ASIN was adopted so that Amazon databases and software, which were designed to expect a 10-character ISBN field, would not have to be changed to accommodate the new identification format.

Usage and structure
Each product sold on Amazon.com is given a unique ASIN. For books with a 10-digit (ISBN), the ASIN and the ISBN are the same. The edition of a book will not use its ISBN as the ASIN, although the electronic version of a book may have its own ISBN. The ASIN forms part of the URL of a product detail page on Amazon's website.

If one knows the ASIN of any product on Amazon, one can access its Amazon page easily by appending it (adding it to the very end) of the following URL:

http://amzn.com/[ASIN]

Note that the above is not a valid URL; a correct ASIN must be inserted at the location of the [ASIN] placeholder.

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