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Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

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Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#71

Post by tomatotomato37 »

Talyen42 wrote: post #59
phobosdeimos wrote: post #8

So 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)

Can confirm, both sponsered links for "iphone charger" score an F on fakespot. Disappointing, considering I was hoping this could be a way to filter through knockoff products.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#72

Post by Terretta »

jrockway wrote: post #57

I 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…

For your particular case at hand, I prefer the Amazon of LEDs:

https://www.superbrightleds.com/cat/led-light-bulbs-universa...

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#73

Post by sonnyblarney »

moate wrote: post #61
sonnyblarney wrote: post #17

Monopolizing one part of the value chain, enables you to leverage that monopoly into controlling the next. Owning the railroads enabled standard oil to price it's competitors more, put them straits, and buy them up cheaply. Owning the OS, Microsoft can make sure they own the Office Product productivity. It's why the electrical grid needs to be separate from the energy makers (and regulated). Amazon and Google as the…

Regulations and oversight? Or anti-trust lawsuits? I have a feeling the only way to disrupt companies this large is with the force of a government busting up the monopolies. A scrappy start-up will just be pounded into submission and/or bought up.

Regulations where it's clean.

But 'net neutrality' for example plays right into the hands of the FANGs. Networks can't make you 'pay per email' thereby allowing more of the surpluses to go to the FANGS.

If there is 'network neutrality' - one might wonder if we also need 'search neutrality' i.e. if you're in the search business, you can't look at that data to infer anything about that person to sell them other kinds of services.

The Office Suite monopoly seemed overwhelming just 15 years ago, but cloud services just got so much better it seems a lot less relevant these days. I haven't used 'MS Word' in forever.

It's probably start time to think about maybe some regulations (specifically with regard to neutrality) in search, but beyond that I don't think there's quite a need to intervene yet.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#74

Post by ckastner »

tfha wrote: post #63
arbuge wrote: post #19

Their 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…

This is why I've been unhappy to see Bezos gaining steam. As his other products become more successful, you can expect a lot more of this. Alexa is not your friend, Alexa is a tool to make Amazon money. Amazon's move into media is not an effort to improve the media system, it's a recognition that there's a lot of money to be made by controlling the media that people consume. Same thing with the fire phone, it wasn't…

> Bezos is out to make an empire, everything else comes second.

I share this sentiment.

For comparison, I believe the amount of and methods with which Google collects data to be wrong, but I also believe that they don't believe they are doing something (outright) wrong.

Amazon, however, must know that they have a counterfeit goods problem, but it seems that they couldn't care less about it. Same applies to gaming the review system.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#75

Post by maxxxxx »

AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #44
maaaats wrote: post #10

Unless you know exctly brand/make/model you wan't to buy on Amazon, the search is useless. Hundreds of similar results from dozens of vendors of varying quality. I liked it better when they sold things themselves, now they're just an eBay clone selling cheap knockoffs trying to hide the fact.

Indeed. It has been common practice for PC parts to use Newegg's search and buy from Amazon, but lately Amazon's price hasn't actually been lower so you can eliminate one step.

Unfortunately Newegg also seems to have gone downhill. Allowing third party sellers is a good way to boost revenues quickly but it also quickly makes the buying experience worse. I now prefer stores where they have the same item only once and not from dozens of sellers. Or I go to eBay.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#77

Post by m3kw9 »

arbuge wrote: post #19

Their 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…

They will not lose customers over this, I skip the ads and still buy what I want, at a good price, and reliable deliveries.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#78

Post by startupdiscuss »

They should get rid of ads for Prime members.

OR else, create Prime Plus for $0.5/month that shows no ads

Or else, raise prime by $6 and remove ads for prime members.

I know some of you are mad that I am suggesting they raise the cost of prime. But if you're willing to cancel prime over this, then you should be okay with that.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#79

Post by matthewaveryusa »

elorant wrote: post #9
iamgopal wrote: post #2

I think amazon is winning solely based on their physical infrastructure which they keep investing in, and hence the share growth. It has nothing to do with how good their website or customer support is, or how many ads they show or not show. All are this ideas they just trying without anything to loose.

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.

Another example is the Bloomberg terminal. It looks terrible but gets the job done and that's all that matters.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#80

Post by enitihas »

sonnyblarney wrote: post #17

Monopolizing one part of the value chain, enables you to leverage that monopoly into controlling the next. Owning the railroads enabled standard oil to price it's competitors more, put them straits, and buy them up cheaply. Owning the OS, Microsoft can make sure they own the Office Product productivity. It's why the electrical grid needs to be separate from the energy makers (and regulated). Amazon and Google as the…

When did standard oil own railroads? I thought Rockefeller had large disagreements with the railroads and they had to build oil pipelines, and that in sense contributed to downfall of certain railroads too reliant on the oil money.
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