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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

#221

Post by 29_29 »

Pxtl wrote: 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…

> Otherwise, Amazon feels like AliExpress with faster shipping and better English.

I canceled prime some time ago, because I realized I was getting significantly lower quality products than Walmart. Its become a junk store.

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

#222

Post by OrgNet »

jastanton wrote: post #56
password1 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Otherwise, Amazon feels like AliExpress with faster shipping and better English. It literally is. All these products are cheap stuff that marketers find on aliexpress. They buy them in bulk, stamp a logo on it, import in the US/EU, stock in logistic centers and then sell on Amazon. It's the same stuff, but it comes from an English seller and a warehouse in US/EU. It's exactly the same thing that Amazon does with it…

The one difference is that the Amazon Basics products seem to have a quality bar higher than the other random re-labeled products.

> Amazon Basics products

haven't had much luck with their Amazon Basics keyboards... went through 2 and then gave up and bought an IBM one...

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

#223

Post by SteveMoody73 »

gambiting wrote: post #205
Pxtl wrote: 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 can only guess you are American) - American experiences with Amazon are so different to mine over here in the UK it's incredible. I buy tonnes of different stuff from Amazon(multiple hundred orders last year) and I have never ever gotten anything counterfeit or had any issues. In fact every time when their 1-day delivery arrives late they just extend my prime by a month, no questions asked. And yet every time I go…

Same here, have placed hundreds of orders on Amazon UK in the last few years and have never really had any problems. The rare few times i've had problems then a call to customer support has usually had the issue resolved right away and quite often with a discount voucher for the next shop.

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

#224

Post by rock_hard »

Certhas wrote: post #88
Pxtl wrote: 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…

Still, they are the monopoly marketplace online. They should be doing _everything_ to avoid looking like they are abusing their monopoly position to muscle into other fields. The fact that they don't seem too bothered just seems to indicate to me that regulators are not prepared to act on them. Really the rule should simply be that if you operate a market place you can't sell on it. Full stop. Then we could simply be…

How is amazon a monopoly?

Last time I checked there was a ocean of e-commerce stores on the internet all selling the same stuff

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

#225

Post by mattmcknight »

tzs wrote: post #181
mattmcknight wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

One thing I run into after filtering by seller is where Amazon is selling one color or size of a product, but if you change the size or color options, the seller changes.

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

#226

Post by bobsoap »

opportune wrote: post #199
jhallenworld wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They do care about the quality of their own products. I posted a negative review on an Amazon product, and they called me(!) so that I could further elaborate. It was very odd because they called within an hour of the review. At some point I must have given them my phone number. This was a review for their TV Cube. I was trying to buy something with good voice control to allow a paralyzed person to browse YouTube, an…

I posted a negative review on a FBA product (~$100) that arrived super late and damaged. I got called to offer me $20 to take the review down. Didn’t respond, they somehow got my review taken down anyway. That was the first time I realized how bad Amazon was getting. Kind of surprised this is something Amazon does too though; I figured only crappy dropshippers would engage in that

I once posted a negative review on their Basics HDMI cable, which had absymal shielding. It went "under review" immediately, and a few days later the review just silently vanished without a trace.

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

#227

Post by senderista »

otakucode wrote: post #107

According to the book 'The Everything Store,' Amazon's search engine is a matter of internal contention. Years ago, when people noticed that Amazon's search engine was terrible (as it is), someone from another group in the company developed a new search system based on Elasticsearch and more modern technologies. He presented the new search to Bezos. But there was an existing team whose primary responsibility was the…

They even hired Udi fucking Manber to improve product search, with no apparent results. Like their hire of Jef Raskin: pearls before swine.

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

#228

Post by mattmcknight »

toasterlovin wrote: post #124
mattmcknight wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Some advice (from a company that sells our own products on Amazon): buy only from Amazon or the manufacturer . When buying from the manufacturer, look at the 1 and 2 star ratings. They will be the best barometer of product quality.

Is there a reliable way of determining that the seller is the actual manufacturer and not a copy cat name?

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

#229

Post by vz8 »

I've taken to keeping a copy of Fakespot[0] open in an incognito browser and regularly submit Amazon URLs to it. Over the past month or so, I've looked at everything from headphones to shampoo and been boggled at the amount of rigging that goes on.

While I can't say for sure that their algorithms are always spot on, they give some interesting feedback in terms of recent review count history, price history, whether Amazon has recently bulk deleted reviews, and some heuristic comment quality ratings. So often I've found that Amazon's Choice is questionable: 4.8 stars, hundreds of reviews within the last 30 days on a slickly packaged, no-name electronics gadget is all too common.

Typically, I use Fakespot to look for red flags, flip back to the reviews area on Amazon, sort them by Most Recent Reviews, and dig around. I don't use the Fakespot Chrome extension, though. Too invasive for my tastes.

[0] https://www.fakespot.com

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

#230

Post by avgDev »

helpPeople wrote: post #48
Pxtl wrote: 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've seen Amazon prices go up while Walmart Online has been cheaper for household items. On speciality electronics, I don't think anyone would be surprised to know Amazon is more expensive. It's an ancedote sure, but back in 2012, we shopped only at Amazon. Now they are no longer King.

I think Amazon can be quickly replaced.

I was attracted to Amazon only because of lower prices. That was it and now it is no longer the case. As soon as another big player steps up and offers lower prices and simple UI there won't be a need for me to shop on Amazon.

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