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

151–160 of 564 posts

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#151

Post by swsieber »

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.

Counterfeit problem? Stop co-mingling inventory - then you can track what inventory went to which customer and easily peg down which sources are selling counterfeits by looking at the reviews.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#152

Post by cfqycwz »

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 remember reading easily a decade ago, when people were describing Amazon as a charity propped up by investors, that this was Amazon's long-term strategy--aggressively reinvest all profits, burn through cash making a loss in order to achieve monopoly or near-monopoly status, and then jack up prices once they'd captured the market. It looks more and more like they're following through.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#153

Post by y-c-o-m-b »

Zelphyr wrote: post #111

Has anyone compiled a list of alternatives to Amazon? I’m not expecting a one-stop-shop where I can buy everything like at Amazon. But a list of online retailers who are better than Amazon at specific categories of products. Because I’m at the point where I would rather pay a little extra and get quality products from a not evil company than continue shopping with Amazon.

Some people are suggesting stop paying for Prime and just use eBay. My biggest concern if I ditch Amazon is losing out on some of the cheap Chinese merchandise that I actually don't mind; flashlights is one example. It never occurred to me that eBay is probably selling the same junk though, so I think i'll start doing comparisons between Amazon and eBay.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#155

Post by dsr_ »

mindcrime wrote: post #112
m3kw9 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Exactly. As Adam Smith said: It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.

And if you don't regulate them in the interests of the people at large, they will conspire to advance their own interests.

The free markets need regulation, or they stop being free.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#156

Post by alexandercrohde »

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…

Downvoting this because it's irrelevant to the topic at hand (Amazon is stuffing search results pages with ads).

It's your right to free-associate all amazon gripes onto this thread, but I'll just use the system to indicate that they are noise to me.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#157

Post by TACIXAT »

I went on the other day to buy a specific brand of pants. I was in the app. I searched, clicked the first link, seemed like it was coming from a third party seller. Selected the size I wanted and ordered. It arrived and was a completely different brand. Went back and looked at the search and it was an ad. What I thought was a third party seller's store name was the brand name. From this experience I learned that I can't trust their search results. The mechanism for finding what I want will also now give me things I don't want.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#158

Post by scrooched_moose »

Zelphyr wrote: post #111

Has anyone compiled a list of alternatives to Amazon? I’m not expecting a one-stop-shop where I can buy everything like at Amazon. But a list of online retailers who are better than Amazon at specific categories of products. Because I’m at the point where I would rather pay a little extra and get quality products from a not evil company than continue shopping with Amazon.

Just looking at my recent purchases:

Electronics - Newegg and Monoprice

Board & Table Top Games - Miniature Market

Pet Food - Chewy (owned by PetSmart now)

Clothing - Depends on your style, but I tend to stick to Eddie Bauer and Duluth Trading Company for good quality, affordable clothes

Comic trade paperbacks - InStockTrades

Books - Barnes & Noble (new) and eBay (used)

The big one I've still struggling to find a replacement for is shoes. Zappos seems to dominate that market and other online stores have been hit and miss. DSW has probably been the best, but I'd love to find something better.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#159

Post by nautilus12 »

At what point does this become semantics. Isn't a sponsored ad with strong context (including the context of the search) simply a paid search result? The issue is that there are competing masters, one that the ad wants to get served and two that the person wants to find the search results most relevant to their context, but amazon is attempting to provide a paid option that meets that context first, and if it meets that context slightly less and is paid, then thats a sacrifice they are willing to make.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#160

Post by na85 »

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.)

To use your analogy, it's not clear to me that one can have the baby without it spoiling the bathwater.
Post reply on HN