Amazon's original strengths to me were fast shipping, low prices, and trustworthy reviews to sort items. I'm not looking forward to what they're turning into as they continue to get away from that old strategy.
Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads
51–60 of 564 posts
Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
When you ask for help finding Corona the staff doesn’t ask if you’d like Heineken instead. No it’s not the same.
Sure, but if you ask for a beer, you usually get the sponsors beer without question, even if they have different beers. edit: talking about bars here
Generic searches this is less of an issue. But see the search for Kellogg Corn Flakes in the article.
Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
If so many people weren't sharing access to my my prime membership I would have cancelled it a year or two ago. Between Walmart and eBay it's rare for Amazon to be the best price for an item or to be the same price and available with two day shipping. For stuff that isn't time sensitive eBay is the clear winner because I can buy items at little markup as long as I'm willing to wait a month for them to ship from China…
Not to mention that 2 day shipping is no longer a guarantee. I have had multiple items that have not shipped on time, or had long delays.
It seems to be about 50/50 nowadays if something that has the Prime stamp takes 2 days or 5 or more. It used to be a nice comfort knowing I could order some supply up to 2 days before it runs out, and I’d have it at my house when I need it.
But now my confidence in the two day shipping is gone, and I often run to a local Walmart to get the same item for the same price, but guaranteed to be at my house that day.
It seems when I get an item through USPS or UPS it’s on time, but a lot of the packages that go through Amazon’s own shipping service (often a large unmarked van that parks in weird spots!) end up delayed an extra day or two.
Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the UK, getting to a town center to do some shopping is so horrific that Amazon is the only remaining option.
Costs more to take the bus in to town than it does for most (slow) deliveries. For some things there are no bricks and mortar stores left. I wanted test cables for a multimeter. 20p from China! (takes weeks mind you); I spent about £3 to get some delivered from a company in Europe within 2 days (probably drop-shipped from China) ... I can't think of anywhere in my UK city to buy them. Bus for me and my toddler in to…
For me it's a 20 minute car journey which actually takes an hour each way, and about $10 to park the car for a couple of hours.
Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads
#55Is there an addon of some kind that exists to make those ads more obvious (some kind of highlights) without outright removing them?
Well, the advertised content seems to have an ad___slot and an AdHolder class so I can probably whip you up something in stylish I guess whenever I get off work (posting as a reminder) .
Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads
#56Their basic underlying assumption appears to be that they're no longer in danger of losing customers and can now act accordingly. Now that they've captured 50%+ of US ecommerce, they've also raised many prices, to the point where they're far from the cheapest price in many cases. A random example... the cat litter I just purchased is $17.89 at Amazon, $13.49 at Walmart. Last week I bought a chair mat for $21.95 on Eb…
Apologies in advance for the self-referential commentary: I've put down a long list of reasons for why I've cancelled prime after almost ten years of consistent use. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16937290 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17568320 If you-the-reader need good reasons to quit prime, I hope these help.
Did you ever end up installing the Helium10 extension?
Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads
#57I might actually be done with Amazon.
Every few months, I spend some time searching for the perfect LED light bulbs for my apartment; the built-in fixture requires 6 candelabra-base bulbs. These are hard to find, but there are a few products catering to this market, so I randomly buy stuff to see if I ever get anything good.
I found some LEDs that claimed to have a high CRI and were brighter than normal, so I took a chance on them. There were a couple legitimate reviews and 5 or more obviously-fake 5 star reviews. The LEDs turned out to be not that good. They were bright, the dimmability was good, and the layout of the internal LEDs was quite unique (corncob style but with some on the top, which is great). But they emitted a very greenish light, which makes them unusable. I have a spectrophotometer so I took a reading of the spectrum and, as you'd expect from the visual appearance, they emit very little red light (and no cyan light, as is the typical emission pattern of low-CRI LEDs).
I wrote a review covering these points, the positives and the negatives, and included the plot of the emission profile. This review was immediately taken down because:
1) Your review should focus on specific features of the product and your experience with it.
2) We do not allow profane or obscene content.
3) Advertisements, promotional material or repeated posts that make the same point excessively are considered spam.
4) Please do not include URLs external to Amazon or personally identifiable content in your review.
In other words: please do not include actual data in your reviews. What Amazon prefers is that the seller buys their own product under a fake name, and then says "5 stars: Great!"
This is probably my last Amazon purchase. I might do a proper write-up and spam it around the Internets and see if I can attract the attention of some higher-ups... but probably not. Instead, I will just shop elsewhere. B&H is way better for electronics anyway, and if you just want shitty LED lights eBay beats Amazon there.
Maybe I will also start buying every LED light I can find and doing proper reviews... but there is no business model there to make my time worthwhile. Reviews only work if you can actually find a product that's good and get people to buy it through your referral link. If every review says "you will hate this product, save your money", there is no way to get funding. So the fake 5 star reviews will continue, and everyone will continue to hate LEDs.
Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ebay is also crap and yet it attracts millions. We may preach good practices all day long but the truth is that if your site is useful users will find a way to navigate it. Even if you keep moving things around like Amazon.
Time for disruption again, I guess... but it'll be very hard to beat Amazon/Ebay. I have an idea for some niches, it'll probably be implemented by the major players after it's been validated though.
There is no place for disruption wrt Amazon actually (eBay is different matter, trying to became the retail marketplace instead of worldwide used goods auction site is the same way Blackberry adopt trying to be an iPhone - with only possible sad outcome).
American consumer is not changing - he still prefer 'easy' (especially easy return), 'one-click', everything in one place, delivered fast and all that convenience to all other features (including quality and price).
Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads
#59So do physical stores. Is it really so different from Heineken paying for prominent shelf space in the supermarket?
In Amazon's case, it's more like you walk in for Heineken and see three advertisements:
* Best Heineken (a Chinese no-name brand with 1,551 fake reviews)
* Top Rated Heinekan (a Chinese no-name brand with 6,731 fake reviews)
* Genuine Official Heienekan 16oz Can Beer Great Tasting Best Loved By Users Drink Up (a Chinese no-name brand with 5,532 fake reviews)
Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
>now they're just an eBay clone selling cheap knockoffs trying to hide the fact. I've moved almost all of my online purchases BACK to ebay actually because of this. At least ebay's trust system is easy to understand and harder to game than what amazon has in terms of reviews. I'm interested to see if this is a trend, or if my circle of friends is an outlier.
I've started to cross check my purchases with Ebay. Recently, I bought a case for my Kindle. A 3rd party company was selling the case on Amazon FBA for $5 more than they were selling it for on Ebay (free shipping, same company name, same product pictures).
...as someone that worked in and out of the used/remaindered book industry over the last 15 years as a developer. For a larger scale seller that is automated, has ship forwarding (bulk carrier to nearest BMC), it is significantly cheaper to sell on ebay now. You will pay $1 less on ebay for the same used book from us.