Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

recode.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 564 posts

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#131

Post by Raphmedia »

specialist wrote: post #122
swaggyBoatswain wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty sure users all see the same price, because otherwise reddit would be up in flames on things like r/mechkeyboarddeals, r/buildapc, r/ultralight, etc. Camelcamelcamel (price history checker) scrapes or pulls data from an external API, its going to be the same for all users

I also use camelcamelcamel to sanity check my recurring purchases. For example, the range for my preferred elderberry syrup is from $20 to $45. https://camelcamelcamel.com/Dr-Dünner-Sambu-Elderberry-Elder... I waited the price to drop back down and then restocked. YMMV

Out of curiosity, what use do you make of elderberry syrup?

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#132

Post by 2bitmachine »

etatoby wrote: post #116
beaconstudios wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

any time where they are trying to make a profit by selling you something you want?

Bingo. Why are so many people willing to throw away the baby (capitalism) with the dirty bathwater (monopolies and others crony deviations.)

[dead]

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#133

Post by chooseaname »

fishbone wrote: post #83
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…

I almost ordered two pvc plumbing fittings from Amazon last week for $13.99. Thanks to some Hackernews skepticism I cancelled my shopping cart. I found the same fittings at my local hardware store for $8.99. My question is, how dynamic are Amazon’s prices? Do all users see the same prices or is it more like google search where results are “personalized”? It seems like they could dynamically change prices based on use…

I heard once that Mac users see slightly higher prices, but I've never been able to personally confirm that.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#134

Post by Fej »

Judson wrote: post #68
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.

I've noticed lately that Amazon's search also returns products if the query matches customer Q&A questions. So if you are wanting to purchase, say, a 10ga extension cord, and UL listing is important to you, searching for '10 Gauge Extension Cord UL' will return many non-UL listed cords with customers asking 'Is this UL Listed?'. It makes for a very frustrating shopping experience.

I don't know about you, but I rarely buy any electrical equipment off of Amazon, because even if it's UL-listed the one received might be counterfeit.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#135

Post by dkrich »

I don't understand the "Amazon is eating into Facebook's and Google's business" argument, and I've seen it now over and over. Is there really a lot of overlap there?

It seems to me that the brands that advertise most heavily on Facebook and Google are the brands that don't sell much, if at all on Amazon. It seems that the overlap would be those products that are sold on Amazon and advertised via Google or Facebook, which I don't think I've seen much of. To me this seems like it would only make selling on Amazon less of a meritocracy and more of a competition for the deepest pockets.

But even if it's true that there is overlap, then suppose a company cuts its Google ad budget to focus on Amazon. Then all searchers who still use Google will now go to their competitors instead. So why would they do that? If Amazon's ad business is growing it seems likely that it's coming at the expense of the sellers more than the other ad platforms.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#137

Post by SteveCoast »

Bartweiss wrote: post #119
SteveCoast wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you saved $4.40 to go to Walmart. * There's a non-zero chunk of the population not near a Walmart or similar. * It costs time to go there * It costs vehicle depreciation So if you were going to Walmart anyway, or walked there with nothing better to do you saved the money. But if you didn't then let's say the average wage is $25/hour or so and you spent 30 minutes there and back, and fully loaded vehicle depreciati…

I agree with this, but it's also true that until recently Amazon usually had all those advantages and lower prices. The change is meaningful both as a revealed strategy, and as a new datapoint about the fear of stores becoming "Amazon showrooms". For quite a while, it's been true that even after you're at Walmart or Target, comparing multiple items you couldn't evaluate well online, it was cheaper to drive home empty…

I agree if the prices are now really higher. They don't "feel" higher to me. Here's cat litter that's $17.49 (one of the root comments mentioned this but it might not be the identical product):

https://camelcamelcamel.com/Dr-Elseys-Premium-Clumping-Litte...

Looks like the price has been going sideways for 4 years with some noise up and down, and before that, come down a lot?

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#138

Post by tyu100 »

m3kw9 wrote: post #84
tfha wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Xyz company is not your friend. Ok, like we didn’t know they are trying to make money off the other side? When is the last time a company trying to make a profit is our friend?

We are in a historical paradise for consumers of selection and low prices, I think we are doing alright. If Amazon doesn't deliver (pun intended) we will go somewhere else. There is no shortage of competition in the retail space.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#139

Post by ckastner »

apersona wrote: post #102
ckastner wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

How would you solve the counterfeit goods and preventing people from gaming the review system problems? It seems like a hard problem - eBay suffered from this too for their goods,Yelp with reviews. I doubt it's just a "I don't care" kind of thing.

> How would you solve the counterfeit goods and preventing people from gaming the review system problems?

No idea what do to about the reviews, but the first step to the counterfeit goods problem is simple: once you've received X complaints about a counterfeit product, stop selling the product.

Continuing to sell a product for which there are numerous and credible indications that they are counterfeit is borderline fraud.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#140

Post by CodeSheikh »

Gone are the days when you go to Amazon.com for bargain shopping or in search for better deals. I look at Amazon's Prime service as a shipping company. I like 1-2 days shipping service and sometimes I would pay a buck or two more for a product of Amazon Prime can ship it.
Post reply on HN