Understanding Metdata download results

[Caleb666]

I have 3 metadata plugins enabled: B&N (by kiwidude), Google and Amazon.com.

When I search the ISBN of 9780471741725, I get only one search result listed, but the log shows that each of the these sources returned results.
Screenshot of the results:
Log:

Starting download 
Query: title:Cuisine and Culture: A History of Food and People; authors:Linda Civitello; isbn:9780471741725 
Running identify query with parameters: 
{u'authors': [u'Linda Civitello'], u'identifiers': {u'isbn': u'9780471741725'}, u'timeout': 30, u'title': u'Cuisine and Culture: A History of Food and People'} 
Using plugins: Barnes & Noble, Google, Amazon.com 
The log from individual plugins is below 

****************************** Amazon.com ****************************** 
Request extra headers: [('User-agent', 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US) AppleWebKit/532.5 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/4.0.249.78 Safari/532.5')] 
Found 1 results 
Downloading from Amazon.com took 4.4849998951 


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Title               : Cuisine and Culture: A History of Food and People
Author(s)           : Linda Civitello
Publisher           : Wiley
Language            : en
Rating              : 3.5
Published           : 2007-03-09T00:00:00+00:00
Identifiers         : amazon:0471741728, isbn:9780471741725
Comments            : <h3>Review</h3><p>"...Tracing the connection between major historical events and their affect on different culinary traditions, this hearty meal of 12 "courses" explains everything from how the Franch gained their gastronomic stature to the roots of American cuisine..." (_Sante_) </p><p>"...Based on the sweep self-assurance and verve exhibited in this book, subtitled "A History of Food and People,: we will be reading more of and from her. "Ah," you say "a game of trivia." Not really, it's too satisfying." (_Chicago Tribune_) </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>An illuminating account of how history shapes our diets-now revised and updated</p><p>Why did the ancient Romans believe cinnamon grew in swamps guarded by giant killer bats? How did the African cultures imported by slavery influence cooking in the American South? What does the 700-seat McDonald's in Beijing serve in the age of globalization? With the answers to these and many more such questions, <em>Cuisine and Culture, Second Edition</em> presents an engaging, informative, and witty narrative of the interactions among history, culture, and food.</p><p>From prehistory and the earliest societies around the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers to today's celebrity chefs, <em>Cuisine and Culture, Second Edition</em> presents a multicultural and multiethnic approach that draws connections between major historical events and how and why these events affected and defined the culinary traditions of different societies. Fully revised and updated, this Second Edition offers new and expanded features and coverage, including:</p><ul> <li>     New Crossing Cultures sections providing brief sketches of foods and food customs moving between cultures  </li> <li>     More holiday histories, food fables, and food chronologies </li> <li>     Discussions of food in the Byzantine, Portuguese, Turkish/Ottoman, and Austro-Hungarian empires </li> <li>     Greater coverage of the scientific genetic modification of food, from Mendel in the 19th century to the contemporary GM vs. organic food debate </li> <li>     Speculation on the future of food </li> <li>     And much more! </li></ul><p>Complete with sample recipes and menus, as well as revealing photographs and illustrations, <em>Cuisine and Culture, Second Edition</em> is the essential survey history for students of food history. </p> 

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****************************** Google ****************************** 
Request extra headers: [('User-agent', 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.2; rv:2.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/4.0.1')] 
Found 1 results 
Downloading from Google took 1.00600004196 


--- 
Title               : Cuisine and Culture: A History of Food and People
Author(s)           : Linda Civitello
Publisher           : John Wiley and Sons
Tags                : Food - History, Food - Social Aspects, Food, History, Social Aspects, Cooking, Essays, General
Rating              : 1.0
Published           : 2007-02-21T10:51:09.812000+00:00
Identifiers         : google:JCmLY7aAqWgC, isbn:9780471741725
Comments            : An illuminating account of how history shapes our diets-now revised and updated  Why did the ancient Romans believe cinnamon grew in swamps guarded by giant killer bats? How did the African cultures imported by slavery influence cooking in the American South? What does the 700-seat McDonald's in Beijing serve in the age of globalization? With the answers to these and many more such questions, Cuisine and Culture, Second Edition presents an engaging, informative, and witty narrative of the interactions among history, culture, and food.  From prehistory and the earliest societies around the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers to today's celebrity chefs, Cuisine and Culture, Second Edition presents a multicultural and multiethnic approach that draws connections between major historical events and how and why these events affected and defined the culinary traditions of different societies. Fully revised and updated, this Second Edition offers new and expanded features and coverage, including:   New Crossing Cultures sections providing brief sketches of foods and food customs moving between cultures  More holiday histories, food fables, and food chronologies  Discussions of food in the Byzantine, Portuguese, Turkish/Ottoman, and Austro-Hungarian empires  Greater coverage of the scientific genetic modification of food, from Mendel in the 19th century to the contemporary GM vs. organic food debate  Speculation on the future of food  And much more!  Complete with sample recipes and menus, as well as revealing photographs and illustrations, Cuisine and Culture, Second Edition is the essential survey history for students of food history. 

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****************************** Barnes & Noble ****************************** 
Request extra headers: [('User-agent', 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.9.2.11) Gecko/20101012 Firefox/3.6.11')] 
Found 1 results 
Downloading from Barnes & Noble took 7.9430000782 


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Title               : Edition 2
Author(s)           : Linda Civitello
Publisher           : Wiley, John & Sons, Incorporated
Rating              : 4.0
Published           : 2007-03-01T00:00:00+00:00
Identifiers         : barnesnoble:Cuisine-and-Culture/Linda-Civitello/e/9780471741725, isbn:9780471741725
Comments            : <p><strong>Synopsis:</strong></p><p>An illuminating account of how history shapes our diets-now revised and updated</p><p>Why did the ancient Romans believe cinnamon grew in swamps guarded by giant killer bats? How did the African cultures imported by slavery influence cooking in the American South? What does the 700-seat McDonald's in Beijing serve in the age of globalization? With the answers to these and many more such questions, <em>Cuisine and Culture, Second Edition</em> presents an engaging, informative, and witty narrative of the interactions among history, culture, and food.</p><p>From prehistory and the earliest societies around the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers to today's celebrity chefs, <em>Cuisine and Culture, Second Edition</em> presents a multicultural and multiethnic approach that draws connections between major historical events and how and why these events affected and defined the culinary traditions of different societies. Fully revised and updated, this Second Edition offers new and expanded features and coverage, including:</p><ul> <li>     New Crossing Cultures sections providing brief sketches of foods and food customs moving between cultures  </li> <li>     More holiday histories, food fables, and food chronologies </li> <li>     Discussions of food in the Byzantine, Portuguese, Turkish/Ottoman, and Austro-Hungarian empires </li> <li>     Greater coverage of the scientific genetic modification of food, from Mendel in the 19th century to the contemporary GM vs. organic food debate </li> <li>     Speculation on the future of food </li> <li>     And much more! </li></ul><p>Complete with sample recipes and menus, as well as revealing photographs and illustrations, <em>Cuisine and Culture, Second Edition</em> is the essential survey history for students of food history. <strong>Biography:</strong></p><p><strong>LINDA CIVITELLO</strong> has a B.A. from Vassar College and an M.A. in history from UCLA. She has taught food history in California and written extensively for television. The previous edition of <em>Cuisine and Culture</em> won the 2003 Gourmand World Cookbook Award for Best Culinary History Book.</p> 
Querying: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/books/product.aspx?EAN=9780471741725
ISBN match location: u'http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Cuisine-and-Culture/Linda-Civitello/e/9780471741725'
B&N url: u'http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Cuisine-and-Culture/Linda-Civitello/e/9780471741725' 

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The identify phase took 8.02 seconds 
The longest time (7.943000) was taken by: Barnes & Noble 
Merging results from different sources and finding earliest publication dates 
We have 1 merged results, merging took: 0.00 seconds

Why did it take the Publisher information, and Review from Amazon.com but the title of the book from B&N?

How does it calculate the 2 star rating? Does it calculate the average of the ratings and floors the result?

Note that the fact that the title is "Edition 2" is probably a bug in kiwidude's B&N plugin (here's the actual title: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Cui.../9780471741725)

[kovidgoyal]

metadata from different sources is combined, using a fairly complex algorithm, for details see sources/identify.py

[Caleb666]

Hi Kovid,

Why was the decision made for certain metadata information to be merged?

For example, looking for the ISBN 9780771047886 in B&N, Google and Amazon only returned one result... that result used the Amazon review, but B&N also had a review, which you cannot see at all! (maybe it is better?)

Edit: It seems to prefer shorter values... for example searching for the ISBN 9780809059195 with the B&N, Amazon and Google plugins selects the author name as "Paulos" instead of "John Allen Paulos". It seems to do the same with book titles. Why is shorter better?

Starting download 
Query: title:Irreligion: A Mathematician Explains Why the Arguments for God Just Don't Add Up; authors:John Allen Paulos; amazon:0809059193, google:wVUqAAAAYAAJ, isbn:9780809059195, barnesnoble:Irreligion/Paulos/e/9780809059195 
Running identify query with parameters: 
{u'authors': [u'John Allen Paulos'], u'identifiers': {u'amazon': u'0809059193', u'google': u'wVUqAAAAYAAJ', u'isbn': u'9780809059195', u'barnesnoble': u'Irreligion/Paulos/e/9780809059195'}, u'timeout': 30, u'title': u"Irreligion: A Mathematician Explains Why the Arguments for God Just Don't Add Up"} 
Using plugins: Barnes & Noble, Google, Amazon.com 
The log from individual plugins is below 

****************************** Barnes & Noble ****************************** 
Request extra headers: [('User-agent', 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.9.2.11) Gecko/20101012 Firefox/3.6.11')] 
Found 1 results 
Downloading from Barnes & Noble took 4.17199993134 


--- 
Title               : Irreligion: A Mathematician Explains Why the Arguments for God Just Don't Add Up
Author(s)           : Paulos
Publisher           : Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Rating              : 4.0
Published           : 2007-12-01T00:00:00+00:00
Identifiers         : barnesnoble:Irreligion/Paulos/e/9780809059195, isbn:9780809059195
Comments            : <p>Are there any logical reasons to believe in God? The mathematician and bestselling author John Allen Paulos thinks not. In <em>Irreligion</em> he presents the case for his own worldview, organizing his book into twelve chapters that refute the twelve arguments most often put forward for believing in God’s existence. Interspersed among these counterarguments are remarks on a variety of irreligious themes, ranging from the nature of miracles and creationist probability to cognitive illusions and prudential wagers. Despite the strong influence of his day job, Paulos says, there isn’t a single mathematical formula in the book. </p> 
B&N url: u'http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Irreligion/Paulos/e/9780809059195/' 

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****************************** Google ****************************** 
Request extra headers: [('User-agent', 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US) AppleWebKit/525.19 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/0.2.153.1 Safari/525.19')] 
Found 1 results 
Downloading from Google took 1.39499998093 


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Title               : Irreligion: A Mathematician Explains Why the Arguments for God Just Don't Add Up
Author(s)           : John Allen Paulos
Publisher           : Hill and Wang
Tags                : Atheism, God, Irreligion, Religion, General, Science
Rating              : 3.0
Published           : 2008-01-03T19:40:55.453000+00:00
Identifiers         : google:wVUqAAAAYAAJ, isbn:9780809059195
Comments            : A Lifelong Unbeliever Finds No Reason to Change His Mind Are there any logical reasons to believe in God? Mathematician and bestselling author John Allen Paulos thinks not. In "Irreligion "he presents the case for his own worldview, organizing his book into twelve chapters that refute the twelve arguments most often put forward for believing in God's existence. The latter arguments, Paulos relates in his characteristically lighthearted style, "range from what might be called golden oldies to those with a more contemporary beat. On the playlist are the firstcause argument, the argument from design, the ontological argument, arguments from faith and biblical codes, the argument from the anthropic principle, the moral universality argument, and others." Interspersed among his twelve counterarguments are remarks on a variety of irreligious themes, ranging from the nature of miracles and creationist probability to cognitive illusions and prudential wagers. Special attention is paid to topics, arguments, and questions that spring from his incredulity "not only about religion but also about others' credulity." Despite the strong influence of his day job, Paulos says, there isn't a single mathematical formula in the book. John Allen Paulos is a professor of mathematics at Temple University. His books include the bestseller "Innumeracy: Mathematical" "Illiteracy and Its Consequences "(H&W, 1988), "A Mathematician Plays the Stock Market," and "A Mathematician Reads the Newspapers." Are there any logical reasons to believe in God? Mathematician and bestselling author John Allen Paulos thinks not. In "Irreligion "he presents the case for his own worldview, organizing his book into twelve chapters that refute the twelve arguments most often put forward for believing in God's existence. The latter arguments, Paulos relates in his characteristically lighthearted style, "range from what might be called golden oldies to those with a more contemporary beat. On the playlist are the firstcause argument, the argument from design, the ontological argument, arguments from faith and biblical codes, the argument from the anthropic principle, the moral universality argument, and others." Interspersed among his twelve counterarguments are remarks on a variety of irreligious themes, ranging from the nature of miracles and creationist probability to cognitive illusions and prudential wagers. Special attention is paid to topics, arguments, and questions that spring from his incredulity "not only about religion but also about others' credulity." Despite the strong influence of his day job, Paulos says, there isn't a single mathematical formula in the book. "The volume gets off to a bracing start, deftly dismantling creationist arguments that the astonishing complexity of life could have come about only through the efforts of a master designer, by succinctly showing how Darwin's theory of natural selection and free-market economics provide well-confirmed alternative explanations for the evolution of complex systems . . . Writing in clear, direct prose, Paulos shows how even everyday references to purpose and intention can be easily reformulated in scientific, nonpurposive terms."--Michiko Kakutani, "The New York Times" "The volume gets off to a bracing start, deftly dismantling creationist arguments that the astonishing complexity of life could have come about only through the efforts of a master designer, by succinctly showing how Darwin's theory of natural selection and free-market economics provide well-confirmed alternative explanations for the evolution of complex systems . . . Writing in clear, direct prose, Paulos shows how even everyday references to purpose and intention can be easily reformulated in scientific, nonpurposive terms."--Michiko Kakutani, "The New York Times" "Paulos wades through the classical arguments for the existence of God and systematically refutes them . . . It is readable and concise, with moments of great logical rigour and dry wit."--Amanda Gefter, "New Scientist" magazine "Paulos deserves high praise for turning out a book that is brief, forthright, and amiable. While making the same basic points as, say Dawkins's "The God Delusion," it avoids the often choleric tone of that work, keeping a light, conversational tone where Dawkins hurls flaming rhetorical fireballs of denunciation . . . The book is organized in a way that readers inclined to skepticism but who have never seriously studied the debate over the viability of theism will find convenient and quite useful in their private debates with friends, relatives, and even clergymen of various persuasions. Paulos lays out, "seriatim," most of the classical philosophical arguments for the existence of a deity, and immediately refutes them as they arise. Thus we find the ontological argument, the argument from First Clause, the argument from design, the argument from the seeming existence of moral universals, and so forth, laid out one by one and just as soon demolished. It will be noted that these chapters are as brief as they are easygoing . . . "Irreligion "will, I'm confident, take a distinguished place in what one might call the canonical literature of the New Atheism, and I highly recommend it, especially to bright youngsters who will find its occasional use of mathematical ideas pleasant."--Norman Levitt, "Skeptic ""John Allen Paulos has written a charming book that takes you on a sojourn of flawless logic, with simple and clear examples drawn from math, science, and pop culture. At journey's end, Paulos has left you with plenty to think about, whether you are religious, irreligious, or anything in between."--Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist, American Museum of Natural History and author of ""Death By Black Hole and Other Cosmic Quandaries """For years John Allen Paulos has been our guide for reading newspapers, playing the stock market, and understanding what all those graphs and charts and formulas really mean. No one knows how to dissect an argument better than Paulos. Now he has turned his rapier wit to the grandest question of them all: is there a God? Those who are religious skeptics will find in Paulos's analysis new ways of looking at both old and new arguments, and those who believe that God's existence can be proven through science, reason, and logic will have to answer to this mathematician's penetrating analysis."--Michael Shermer, Publisher of "Skeptic" magazine, monthly columnist for "Scientific American," and the author of "How We Believe, The Science of Good and Evil," and "Why Darwin Matters ""Using the methods of mathematics, reason and logic, Paulos wrestles religious belief systems to the ground and in the process proves he is as good a writer as he is a mathematician. The book is short, to the point and humorous, and God knows, this subject could use more humor."--Joan Konner, Dean Emerita of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism and editor of "The Atheist's Bible ""Another virtuoso performance from a master in the use of mathematics to explore the conundrums and mysteries of everyday life."--Sylvia Nasar, author of "A Beautiful Mind" "John Allen Paulos has done us all a great service. 

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****************************** Amazon.com ****************************** 
Request extra headers: [('User-agent', 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.9.2.11) Gecko/20101012 Firefox/3.6.11')] 
Found 1 results 
Downloading from Amazon.com took 3.48500013351 


--- 
Title               : Irreligion: A Mathematician Explains Why the Arguments for God Just Don't Add Up
Author(s)           : John Allen Paulos
Publisher           : Hill and Wang
Language            : en
Rating              : 3.6
Published           : 2007-12-26T00:00:00+00:00
Identifiers         : amazon:0809059193, isbn:9780809059195
Comments            : <h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Few of the recent books on atheism have been worth reading just for wit and style, but this is one of them: Paulos is truly funny. De-spite the title, the Temple University math professor doesn't actually discuss mathematics much, which will be a relief to any numerically challenged readers who felt intimidated by his previous book <em>Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences</em>. In this short primer (just the gist with an occasional jest), Paulos tackles 12 of the most common arguments for God, including the argument from design, the idea that a moral universality points to a creator God, the notion of first causes and the argument from coincidence, among others. Along the way, he intersperses irreverent and entertaining little chapterlets that contain his musings on various subjects, including a rather hilarious imagined IM exchange with God that slyly parodies Neale Donald Walsch's <em>Conversations with God</em>. Why does solemnity tend to infect almost all discussions of religion? Paulos asks, clearly bemoaning the dearth of humor. This little book goes a long way toward correcting the problem, and provides both atheists and religious apologists some digestible food for thought along the way. <em>(Jan. 3)</em> <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>Review</h3><p>“He’s done it again.* John Allen Paulos has written a charming book*that takes you on a sojourn of flawless logic, with simple and clear*examples drawn from math, science, and pop culture.* At journey’s*end, Paulos has left you with plenty to think about, whether you are*religious, irreligious, or anything in between.” —Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist, American Museum of Natural History and author of <em>_</em>Death By Black Hole and Other Cosmic Quandaries_</p><p>"For years John Allen Paulos has been our guide for reading newspapers, playing the stock market, and understanding what all those graphs and charts and formulas really mean. No one knows how to dissect an argument better than Paulos. Now he has turned his rapier wit to the grandest question of them all: is there a God? Those who are religious skeptics will find in Paulos’s analysis new ways of looking at both old and new arguments, and those who believe that God’s existence can be proven through science, reason, and logic will have to answer to this mathematician’s penetrating analysis." —Michael Shermer, Publisher of <em>Skeptic</em> magazine, monthly columnist for <em>Scientific American</em>, and the author of <em>How We Believe, The Science of Good and Evil</em>, and <em>Why Darwin Matters</em></p><p>"Using the methods of mathematics, reason and logic, Paulos*wrestles religious belief systems to the ground and in the process proves he is as good a writer as he is a mathematician. The book is short, to the point and humorous, and God knows,*this*subject could use more humor."—Joan Konner, Dean Emerita of the Columbia*Graduate*School of Journalism and*editor*of <em>The Atheist’s Bible</em></p><p>"Another virtuoso performance from a master in the use of mathematics to explore the conundrums and mysteries of everyday life."--Sylvia Nasar, author of <em>A Beautiful Mind</em></p><p>"John Allen Paulos has done us all a great service. <em>_</em>Irreligion_ is an elegant and timely response to the manifold ignorance that still goes by the name of 'faith' in the 21st century."-- Sam Harris, author of the New York Times best sellers, <em>The End of Faith </em>and <em>Letter to a Christian Nation</em></p> 

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The identify phase took 4.21 seconds 
The longest time (4.172000) was taken by: Barnes & Noble 
Merging results from different sources and finding earliest publication dates 
We have 1 merged results, merging took: 0.00 seconds