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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

#401

Post by larkeith »

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?

This viewpoint fails to consider the nontrivial competitive advantage gained by building customer loyalty. There are plenty of brands that do well despite higher prices, longer waits, etc due to their consistent positive interactions with customers; A culture of trust between customer and company is frequently worth the cost.

Amazon seems to have decided that the higher margins of counterfeits and prioritizing ads over search quality are worth the loss of user trust. I wholeheartedly hope this will be a costly miscalculation on their part, as I would prefer a marketplace with fewer ads and reliably genuine items.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#402

Post by secabeen »

rmah wrote: post #376
swsieber wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Amazon co-mingles different retailer's inventory when amazon handle fulfillment for them?!?!? Are you sure? That's insane.

Yes, that's the root cause of many of their fulfillment issues. And it makes sense for something like a mass-market book. It makes less sense for other things.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#403

Post by [deleted] »

aglavine wrote: post #383
bootsz wrote: post #289

In some sense it feels like Amazon is progressing along a similar trajectory as Facebook: 1. Start company with a minimally viable product 2. Hire smart people to iteratively optimize the usefulness of the product to attract as many users as possible. Incentive structure rewards maximizing new users 3. Product reaches "peak usefulness"; seemingly everyone uses it / loves it 4. Re-focus business efforts to maximize re…

The thing is that in 3) the company still doesn't make money.

[deleted]

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#404

Post by llao »

jeremy7600 wrote: post #345
primitivesuave wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try searching "airpods" (a registered trademark of Apple) and you won't find a legitimate Apple product until the third page. Even if you search "Apple airpods", the first page is filled with knockoffs of the product I'm clearly intending to purchase. In frustration I simply walked to an Apple store and learned they price-match Best Buy and Walmart (not Amazon) with up to a 10% discount - I found the Amazon price on…

First page, 1st non-sponsored result: Apple MMEF2AM/A AirPods Wireless Bluetooth Headset for iPhones with iOS 10 or Later White by Apple can't get any more legit than that. "Apple airpods": 1st non-sponsored result: Apple MMEF2AM/A AirPods Wireless Bluetooth Headset for iPhones with iOS 10 or Later White by Apple wait wut?

Huh, I can confirm GP. Nothing by Apple, no Airpods. https://i.imgur.com/LymtHOnr.jpg (sorry about the quality, I thought Imgur was lossless...)

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#405

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

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…

Amazon has to bake the cost of shipping and handling into their price structure. It isn't free for them and they can't take a loss on their core business operations forever.

A mass market merchant who bulk ships to their stores has certain advantages over that model. One who stongarms their suppliers to sell them product with minimal to negative margin can beat Amazon.

Walmart can only stock so many SKUs. You can't walk into a brick and mortar store and select from 1M+ products including niche items that aren't profitable to sell at retail.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#406

Post by secabeen »

Raphmedia wrote: post #281
melq wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That's true for almost all herbs. There are few studies because you cannot stick a copyright on herbs so there's no almost incentives for big companies to push for such researches. There seem to be some conclusive studies on elderberry helping for influenza. Ex: "In conclusion, the proprietary elderberry extract used here is effective in controlling influenza symptoms and is complementary to current anti‐viral agents…

And of course, even if it did absolutely nothing, it would still be useful as a placebo.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#407

Post by gnahckire »

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…

I stopped when the cost of prime went up again.

When I do order, my orders get free shipping anyways.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#408

Post by trevor-e »

I was amazed the other day at how difficult it is to find products on Amazon now. I knew exactly which product I wanted to buy beforehand too.

I was trying to buy "BSN Syntha-6 Edge Protein Powder". I dare anyone reading this comment to find a 2-pound jug of cookies and cream flavored whey protein (not Micellar Casein or Hydrolyzed). I found it on GNC's website very quickly and bought it there.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#409

Post by dhimes »

mindcrime wrote: post #328
wolco wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You think your interests overlap. They have been carefully presented this way to extract maximum value from you over the long term.

If a transaction weren't in my interest, I wouldn't engage in it. And value isn't being extracted when parties engage in voluntary trade, it's being created . Note that this is not to say that I (or anybody else) engages in strict, robot-like, mathematical optimization of all transactions to ensure that our best interest is served down to the .00000000000001th place. We, as human beings, employ satisficing[1] for a l…

If a transaction weren't in my interest, I wouldn't engage in it.

This is a fallacy. People often engage in transactions that aren't in their interest- believing in the moment that they are. Or said another way, there's a difference between long-term interest and short term interest, and people often don't see their long-term interest clearly. Or said still a different way, there's a big difference between happiness and pleasure, and people sometimes engage in pleasure in detriment to their happiness (roughly from the Dalai Lama).

I'm not talking about the 10^(-14). I'm talking about real decisions where there is an information asymmetry. And meth.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#410

Post by LinuxBender »

Spooky23 wrote: post #335
Gustomaximus wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does it though? 1) The day Amazon feel threatened they can become the cheapest in the market quickly again. 2) Given purchasing power scale and people like fast delivery there will only be a handful of companies that can complete with Amazon ever, so it seems unlikely there will be a 'started in the garage' business compete with them now the market is maturing. 3) With the extra profit Amazon are making vs a competit…

I don't think that Wall St would accept Amazon going back to the money losing days -- they would pay a high price. You're starting to see competitors react effectively. WalMart is investing alot on the pickup strategy. Target has upped their game with small box shipments from stores. We stopped almost all purchasing that we did at amazon for household goods -- in many cases Target is providing next day delivery via U…

Sometimes people don't even realize when they got items that were not what they ordered.

One two occasions, I ordered Nvidia cards that are overclocked. Both of them were swapped out with stock speed cards. People would not notice this unless they looked at the nvidia control panel and clicked system settings and looked at the clock speed.

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