Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#221

Post by melq » Tue, Sep 11, 2018, 4:05 PM UTC

specialist wrote: post #208

Raphmedia wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Doctor's orders. I'm immune compromised. Dr says it's as effective as tamiflu. From my reading, elderberry doesn't prevent infections, but it does minimize the symptoms, which matches my experience.

https://nccih.nih.gov/health/euroelder

>Although some preliminary research indicates that elderberry may relieve flu symptoms, the evidence is not strong enough to support its use for this purpose.

You may want to find a new doctor.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#222

Post by tomc1985 » Tue, Sep 11, 2018, 4:07 PM UTC

Damn it people, stop messing with organic search...

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#223

Post by astura » Tue, Sep 11, 2018, 4:07 PM UTC

ryandrake wrote: post #114

hvoiiita wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ebay purchases should also have sales tax, it's just that the onus is on you to report it on your taxes rather than being taken automatically. I don't think it's very fair to add that as a negative to Amazon purchases. Other than that, I agree, many things have 10%-15% markup.

Most eBay sellers also provide free shipping, regardless of your order size, and it’s often faster than Amazon’s free shipping. If you’re looking for something relatively common, you can filter eBay results by distance to your home, and sometimes you can get your item next day for free shipping. eBay is surprisingly good as a buyer. Understood, however, that as a seller eBay is a pretty tough partner.

>Most eBay sellers also provide free shipping, regardless of your order size

Quite a while ago eBay switched to charging final value fees on shipping. Previous to that people would list items for $.01 plus $8 shipping, which was pretty obnoxious to weed through. With that change it ended up making sense for eBay sellers to just bundle the cost of shipping into the price, which ends up usually being a better experience for the customer, because they know what they are going to pay right away.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#224

Post by projektir » Tue, Sep 11, 2018, 4:09 PM UTC

mindcrime wrote: post #172

dsr_ wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Everybody "conspires to advance their own interests"... that's pretty much the definition of self-interest. Anyway, the point is just that one doesn't expect companies to be your friend. You expect them to pursue their own interest, and thankfully their interest and your interest overlap quite often - and mutual, voluntary exchange of goods, service, and currency occurs. Are there things I wish Amazon, for example, d…

> Everybody "conspires to advance their own interests"... that's pretty much the definition of self-interest.

There are very different forms of self-interest, the one implied here is of the very shallow, short term kind.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#225

Post by lolsal » Tue, Sep 11, 2018, 4:10 PM UTC

ckastner wrote: post #139

apersona wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> 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.

If you don't have an idea of how to solve the review problem, I'm not convinced you've thought through the "received X complaints about a counterfeit product" problem and your proposed solution. In your system, I could easily assault my competitors with counterfeit claims and get their products removed. This already happens with reviews and other sort of reports/returns.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#226

Post by astura » Tue, Sep 11, 2018, 4:11 PM UTC

greetings wrote: post #48

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #43

Earlier 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.

I've had a couple Prime free trials. Once there were two items I bought that were sold and shipped by Amazon, however, they weren't "Prime eligible" for no reason I could understand. It's just totally confusing to exclude random items from "Prime."

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#227

Post by huehehue » Tue, Sep 11, 2018, 4:11 PM UTC

scrooched_moose wrote: post #158

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 rep…

Can't you go direct to a brand's site for shoes, if you already know what you want?

For marketplaces/browsing, there are sites like ASOS, Gilt, Yahoo! Japan, eBay, etc. You can also browse any department store's online section to find something you like, and then order straight from the brand.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#228

Post by specialp » Tue, Sep 11, 2018, 4:11 PM UTC

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.

I really think they don't care that much. For them what they do is take a 20% rip from the random sellers that appear on there and always side with the buyer in any case of counterfeit or misrepresented products. This is working great in the interim as they truly have nothing (monetarily) to lose like this. Customers get a full refund no questions asked, and often get to keep the knockoff. Amazon makes more money on marketplace than selling themselves.

But for someone like me, I don't want to gamble whenever I buy anything. I have had Prime from the very start and now I think I am not going to renew. I am sick of getting substandard products and lately with their private label shipping the delivery date/time has been completely arbitrary. I've done almost all of my shopping online my entire adult life, but now I am increasingly going to local stores as I have never received a fake, and now they compete on price.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#229

Post by matwood » Tue, Sep 11, 2018, 4:13 PM UTC

ntsplnkv2 wrote: post #123

geerlingguy wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 se…

I've been using prime since 2010. At first, it was incredible. 2 days, every time, no matter what. Now it's almost always 3 days because they do the "USPS last mile" bullshit. It never makes it early enough on day 2 to make it on the mail truck for that day. I've complained about this and still the same thing. Before I'd get a free month with a quick chat. Not anymore. Now I get a half-assed apology and have to pull…

> USPS last mile

This so much. USPS is literally the worst service I have ever used. If I see an Amazon package switch over to USPS I immediately email and get them to send it again and switch it to FedEx or UPS. You're right though that it is becoming harder to get them to switch it back to a delivery service that actually cares about delivery.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#230

Post by jrockway » Tue, Sep 11, 2018, 4:13 PM UTC

foobarrio wrote: post #127

cmurf wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ikea LEDs are pretty darn good for the price. Also note there is a lot of debate and quandary about the CRI as it applies to fluorescent let alone LED. Basically the CRI as it stands is like your kid coming home with a single grade for their report card, they got a B+. Little do you know they got A's in everything but got an F in earth science. The full spectral power distribution is almost too much information, but…

I for one, would love a little chart that shows the power spectrum as well as a black line representing ideal black body output next to the CRI rating. I'm sure a graphic designer can make this prettier (and I think we only care to show the part in the visible spectrum for lights no?). This would show whatever weird spikes or valleys the output might have. * https://www.newport.com/medias/sys_master/images/images/h5e…

Yes, it would be very nice if people just measured the emission spectrum of their light bulb (compared to incandescent and daylight)... but there is no incentive to do that or for it to be correct.

I agree that CRI is just a number that doesn't have any objective or subjective meaning.