Amazon’s new search patent

Amazon.com has filed patent 6,564,213 for search query autocompletion strings. A search term is “preferably biased to favor the database items that are currently the most popular.” The idea seems similar to Google’s spelling correction but with partial strings. If I am on Amazon’s wireless site I can see the advantage of typing “Pearl” in the music category for a Pearl Jam CD, but the implications for not discovering Janis Joplin’s CD could make the whole thing dangerous.