# Why doesn't the 'back' button work on Amazon?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-the-back-button-work-on-amazon/587388
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [June 30, 2011, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-the-back-button-work-on-amazon/587388 "2011-06-30T14:31:39Z")
**Posts on this page:** 14
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [June 30, 2011, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-the-back-button-work-on-amazon/587388/1 "2011-06-30T14:31:39Z")
Thread title pretty much says it. I’ve recently noticed that I can’t navigate back on Amazon’s website using the ‘back’ arrow of the IE9 browser. I don’t have this issue with any other website. It’s most annoying.
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### Author:  [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)
#### Post date: [June 30, 2011, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-the-back-button-work-on-amazon/587388/2 "2011-06-30T16:19:17Z")
Many shopping sites do this. I think it is to compensate for sloppy programming. For example, if you go back and change your order, their computer might not realize that you’ve _changed_ your order, but might think that you’re entering an _additional_ order. Stuff like that. Disabling the “back” button prevents some of those things.
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### Author:  [@SeldomSeen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeldomSeen)
#### Post date: [June 30, 2011, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-the-back-button-work-on-amazon/587388/3 "2011-06-30T16:31:44Z")
I run onto sites sometimes where the back button doesn’t work, and it doesn’t always seem to be shopping sites. I’ve found, however that by using the “recent pages” arrow beside the back/foreward buttons you can back up by using the pull-down menu. For some reason that always seems to work even where the back button doesn’t. FWIW.
SS
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [June 30, 2011, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-the-back-button-work-on-amazon/587388/4 "2011-06-30T17:45:25Z")
It seems bizarre on a site where being able to browse is important. I almost never buy the first book I look at, but would like to be able to get back to it with a couple of clicks, if necessary.
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### Author:  [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)
#### Post date: [June 30, 2011, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-the-back-button-work-on-amazon/587388/5 "2011-06-30T17:57:12Z")
On sites like that, I almost always use middle-click to open the next window in a new tab, so teh old one still stays there. (I use Firefox, but I think this works in IE too.)
In FF I combine this with use of the “Back to Close” add-on and the mouse side button set as a back button. This makes things even easier, but it is not essential.
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### Author:  [@srzss05](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/srzss05)
#### Post date: [June 30, 2011, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-the-back-button-work-on-amazon/587388/6 "2011-06-30T18:12:06Z")
> [@SeldomSeen](#):
>
> For some reason that always seems to work even where the back button doesn’t.
The reason it works that way is that you bypass the redirect that simply hitting the back button sets up.
Some sites have multiple layers of redirects, and when I discover those sites they go into my list of restricted sites.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [June 30, 2011, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-the-back-button-work-on-amazon/587388/7 "2011-06-30T20:32:25Z")
To explain further, the simplest way to disable the back button is through redirects. When you click a link on Page A, it doesn’t take you directly to Page B where you want to go, but to Page C, which is set up to immediately forward you to B. So when you’re on B and hit the back button, that takes you to C, which immediately sends you back to B. With the dropdown, though, instead of going back one page at a time (to C), you can go back multiple pages, to A.
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [June 30, 2011, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-the-back-button-work-on-amazon/587388/8 "2011-06-30T23:11:17Z")
Since I can’t even understand the explanation, it’s time for an email to Amazon to complain.
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### Author:  [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)
#### Post date: [June 30, 2011, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-the-back-button-work-on-amazon/587388/9 "2011-06-30T23:16:30Z")
My FF5 back button works just fine on Amazon.
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### Author:  [@Fake\_Tales\_of\_San\_Francisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fake_Tales_of_San_Francisco)
#### Post date: [June 30, 2011, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-the-back-button-work-on-amazon/587388/10 "2011-06-30T23:20:58Z")
Back button works fine in Chrome too!
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### Author:  [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2011, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-the-back-button-work-on-amazon/587388/11 "2011-07-02T03:39:40Z")
> [@Keeve](#):
>
> Many shopping sites do this. I think it is to compensate for sloppy programming. For example, if you go back and change your order, their computer might not realize that you’ve _changed_ your order, but might think that you’re entering an _additional_ order. Stuff like that. Disabling the “back” button prevents some of those things.
Yeah, but all modern browsers compensate for this by asking you whether you want to resubmit the information.
Combined with the fact that Chrome and Firefox work correctly, I’m going to assume it’s an accident. Firefox has this problem in one of the betas of Firefox 4. It has to do with how the browser history is processed. Sometimes you get two versions of the same page–I think because the code refreshes the page or something.
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### Author:  [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2011, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-the-back-button-work-on-amazon/587388/12 "2011-07-02T04:09:18Z")
> [@Chefguy](#):
>
> Thread title pretty much says it. I’ve recently noticed that I can’t navigate back on Amazon’s website using the ‘back’ arrow of the IE9 browser. I don’t have this issue with any other website. It’s most annoying.
IE9 is new. Did you notice the problem around when you installed it? I’m using IE8 and the back button works just fine at Amazon.
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2011, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-the-back-button-work-on-amazon/587388/13 "2011-07-02T15:35:08Z")
> [@elfkin477](#):
>
> IE9 is new. Did you notice the problem around when you installed it? I’m using IE8 and the back button works just fine at Amazon.
In light of the above posts, you may be on to something. I sent an email and they promised to look into it, but it’s probably a MS glitch (big surprise).
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### Author:  [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2011, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-the-back-button-work-on-amazon/587388/14 "2011-07-02T17:42:48Z")
> [@BigT](#):
>
> Yeah, but all modern browsers compensate for this by asking you whether you want to resubmit the information.
Which is not really a solution. What exactly is getting resubmitted? From the user perspective there is no way to know.
The problem is that browsers were designed for a stateless display of information and we are trying to use them for processes that are inherently full of state. It’s a complete mismatch. What does it mean to have a link to a page that is dependent on the state at the time it was generated and that the state has now changed? I don’t think it makes much sense at all.