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Amazon Changed Search Algorithm in Ways That Boost Its Own Products

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Re: Amazon Changed Search Algorithm in Ways That Boost Its Own Products

#181
post #34

Considering how shopping at Amazon now feels like shopping at an electronics bazaar in Singapore with giant bins of random knock-off products of suspicious quality, tweaking the algo to push name-brand options (even if it's their own name-brand) would be a welcome move to me as a buyer. Obviously it's grossly unfair to their vendors, but from a strictly user-centric view it's an improvement. Otherwise, Amazon feels l…

I'm done with buying stuff from third party sellers on Amazon. If the seller is not amazon.com, I am not buying from Amazon. Fulfilled by Amazon is not good enough. Unfortunately, the only way to get a seller option is to pick an item department. I wonder why they would bury such a useful feature. It should be a box you can tick for the whole site.

Are items where the seller is Amazon immune from commingling [1]?

[1] OT: I wondered why it is "commingling" instead of "comingling" (like "cohabitation"), or "colmingling" (like "collaboration"), "conmingling" (like "concur"), or "cormingling" (like "correlation"), so looked up the rule.

The com-, co-, col-, con-, and cor- prefixes all mean "together". Which is used generally follows this rule: "Com- is used before b, m, p, also occasionally before vowels and f. The following variant forms occur: co- especially before vowels, h, and gn; col- before l; cor- before r; and con- before other consonants". See https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/com-

Re: Amazon Changed Search Algorithm in Ways That Boost Its Own Products

#182
post #34

Considering how shopping at Amazon now feels like shopping at an electronics bazaar in Singapore with giant bins of random knock-off products of suspicious quality, tweaking the algo to push name-brand options (even if it's their own name-brand) would be a welcome move to me as a buyer. Obviously it's grossly unfair to their vendors, but from a strictly user-centric view it's an improvement. Otherwise, Amazon feels l…

Good thing people love Singaporean electronics bazaars.

Re: Amazon Changed Search Algorithm in Ways That Boost Its Own Products

#184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have a point but I think the fact that grocery stores sell private label goods is the counter-point. Grocery stores re-package goods like rice, beans, paper towels, etc. to compete with their vendors all the time. We call them supermarkets, right? A grocery store is simply a more organized open market. Which is very comparable to Amazon. I think the problem is that they present the results on good faith that "the…

> A grocery store is simply a more organized open market. That’s not true though right? Don’t grocery stores buy the products that are on their shelves and they are reselling them? That’s fundamentally different from a marketplace.

I think that's true for most goods, but there were definitely brands that stocked their own shelves at Publix when I worked there.

That said, what brands got that special treatment was very much decided by Publix, so they were still curating the selection, they just weren't paying up-front for the goods or responsible for keeping those shelves looking good.

Re: Amazon Changed Search Algorithm in Ways That Boost Its Own Products

#185
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They recalled a quarter million power banks because they were catching fire. Everybody uses the same factories and Amazon doesn't have better quality control than anyone else.

To be fair, Samsung had to scrap a whole phone model because of battery problems. The Boeing 787 suffered with problems of batteries catching fire (and according to some reports still does). It's a tricky problem to avoid.

>It's a tricky problem to avoid.

Its really not though, its just that between insurance and the courts its currently cheaper to enter products into the stream of commerce that will catch fire x% of times and hurt Y people costing $z, than it is to manufacture/supply/distribute/retail a product that won't catch fire in 100% of cases.

Hell even when z exceeds the cost of proper manufacturing, these companies are significantly more likely to spend money lobbying for changes to insurance and/or products liability litigation than fix the products to make the current formula work rather than spend more money on the cost of the product(s).

Re: Amazon Changed Search Algorithm in Ways That Boost Its Own Products

#186
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, Samsung had to scrap a whole phone model because of battery problems. The Boeing 787 suffered with problems of batteries catching fire (and according to some reports still does). It's a tricky problem to avoid.

Anecdotally I've spoken to people who compete with Amazon private label in electronics and they tell me Amazon doesn't care about quality, and that the factories they were buying from were known to be lower quality. I've also heard the opposite about Anker - that they always get the best quality.

The issue, then, is how do I guarantee that the Anker branded product I'm buying through Amazon is genuinely Anker manufactured. I'm of the understanding that Amazon comingle stock from different supply chains in their warehouses so presumably I can't trust them to be supplying genuine hardware.

Re: Amazon Changed Search Algorithm in Ways That Boost Its Own Products

#187
post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

jschwartzi was talking about power supplies (i.e., devices that transform mains AC power to DC power), not power banks.

Really? Do people describe chargers or power supplies as power banks? Surely the 'bank' part of it implies some kind of storage.

I do hear chargers with a large number of ports called "power banks" - I think the implication is that it's like a line of ATMs serving many customers.

Re: Amazon Changed Search Algorithm in Ways That Boost Its Own Products

#188
post #26

Of course. Good for them. It’s their fucking store! > Amazon has adjusted its product-search system to more prominently feature listings that are more profitable for the company Unthinkable. A store trying to make a profit selling things. How crazy.

Is this only being down voted because of tone? I am curious if there actually are any laws relevant to this situation. As far as I can tell, this is exactly like Walmart or BigBoxCo pushing their own brands. It's not illegal and, generally, it's not even a bad thing for the consumer (in the short term). It really feels like most of the people taking issue with this are doing so because of their personal sentiments ra…

It's a similar problem to why we have antitrust laws.

If this was you or I, there wouldn't be a problem. If you are the only / pretty much the only store used then it (to me) would clearly be a problem for consumers. You'd be using your monopoly in one area (marketplace) to benefit you elsewhere (selling USB cables) rather than competing on a level playing field.

In between it becomes trickier. At what point are they too big? How dominant would they need to be?

I think there are differences to physical stores partly due to scale. If a shelf has 10 different variations of basically the same thing that's the equivalent of all products being on the front of the search results. If there are hundreds, then the ranking becomes vital.

Re: Amazon Changed Search Algorithm in Ways That Boost Its Own Products

#189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

who is it ? I thought amazon was #1 in many metrics

Walmart dwarfs Amazon in annual sales (and also plays hardball with its vendors).

ah well, what a pleasure to read

Re: Amazon Changed Search Algorithm in Ways That Boost Its Own Products

#190
post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I too have noticed this. I recently bought a new keyboard and mouse and got them both at best buy for cheaper.

When I spilled water on my keyboard, I actually walked into a Fry's and got a better deal than anything online, for a genuine Microsoft keyboard.

I've noticed this on many occasions in the last month. I bought a mouse that Amazon had listed for $39. I walked a block and bought it from Office De/Max for $10 cheaper.

I wanted to get a sweater shaver. Amazon had it for 22. I bought a NIB one from Ebay for $12.

As far as I am concerned, the only thing Amazon has going for it right now is that it is a a one stop shop. That's worth something… how much? I'm not sure, but I know I'm buying a hell of a lot less stuff from Amazon now than 2 years ago.

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