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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

#231

Post by mrweasel »

ajmurmann wrote: post #136
kenforthewin wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So the solution to counterfeits on Amazon is to only buy Amazon brands? I'd prefer they address their counterfeit problem directly.

I loved Amazon before it became a marketplace. I wish we could go back to that.

Sadly everyone want’s to be a marketplace, and online shopping has become devided into two categories. Stores are either extremely niche with good quality and high prices or they have become caught in a race to the bottom, selling as cheaply as possible with no regard for how that might affect quality. There’s no mid-range anymore.

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

#232

Post by hbosch »

pixelpoet wrote: post #152
toasterlovin wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, there is not a direct analogy because Amazon is not a monopoly . They aren't even the largest retailer.

I feel there's an argument to be made for Amazon having a near-monopoly on online sales and distribution in many countries, even outside America. They've simply nailed it and scaled it. In New Zealand a company called TradeMe got there first and successfully fended off Amazon, but that's a minority case. There are pros (e.g. consumers love it) and cons (e.g. human toll when optimising efficiency without robots) to ha…

>I feel there's an argument to be made for Amazon having a near-monopoly on online sales and distribution in many countries.

Can you share more? This is quite a grand statement to submit based on your "feeling"...

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

#233

Post by phjesusthatguy3 »

VBprogrammer wrote: post #78
ikeboy wrote: 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.

To be fair, "bringing manufacturing back to America" would bring these problems back as well. Yes, it's the manufacturer's fault. It's really the company hiring the manufacturer who's at fault, though. Cash Rules Everything Around Me and all that.

If the company writing the checks can write checks to people who are going to cut corners, people will die. Full stop.

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

#235

Post by ryandrake »

partialrecall wrote: post #209
NeedMoreTea wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well I might have had trust in Amazon as a brand maybe a decade ago, as it got to the brand and product I wanted to buy pretty effectively. They've intentionally diluted it by filling their site with endless marketplace shite, and dodgy searches that hide brand leaders to show no-name garbage, and littering it with adverts for other no-name garbage. It's quite often I struggle to find the listing for the market leade…

Amazon employees have complained to Bezos about the state of Amazon's search. Bezos' response every time I've heard it is along the lines of "meh, I think our search is pretty good, quit your complaining." Maybe it's intentional, or maybe he's deluded. I don't know. But either way, I doubt it's going to get fixed any time soon.

Maybe an urban legend, but I thought I read somewhere that the version of Amazon that Bezos personally sees is quite different than the one you and I see, due to all his various little one-off complaints and product micromanagement. Legend has it that engineering gave up trying to make sense of the requests and just gave him his own environment that does everything he thinks it should do. If true, then the search he sees might actually be pretty good for him.

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

#236

Post by hbosch »

There was a post on HN a while back about Apple boosting it's own apps in their App Store search. Likewise, I am sure that Google prefers to show results from it's own companies (e.g. if I google the word "spreadsheet", my first result is for Google Sheets). This is all the same thing, no?

Edit: I'll add that I'm not saying it isn't an anti-competitive practice, I'm sure it is. But I am saying that it's a bit silly to insinuate that stores don't already advertise for their own goods.

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

#237

Post by ikeboy »

NeedMoreTea wrote: post #206
ikeboy wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are those identical products being sold as Anker, or under different brands? If it's different brands then it's not counterfeit just to make a product that looks similar to another one.

There's similar and completely indistinguishable, except for brand name and logo. e.g. their desk lamps, also their mice. Seems to be the case for almost every Anker product I remember looking at recently.

Nothing illegal about that unless Anker has a design patent.

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

#238

Post by PavlovsCat »

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.

Then why are they fiddling with the results to favor Amazon products, instead of just ranking by quality?

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

#239

Post by mrguyorama »

rdl wrote: post #147
alistairSH wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is a power bank different than a battery? Isn't the power bank just several batteries crammed in a casing, with a power-out port?

Most modern rechargeable batteries have fairly sophisticated chemistry and thus charge controllers needed -- you don't just dump electricity into them blindly and then take it out. It's not quite rocket surgery, but there's a reasonable level of engineering involved, especially if you want optimal performance with the newer standards (which increase voltage on devices which support it, etc.)

Often times that "reasonable level of engineering" only needs to be slapping a ten cent IC on a board with some manufacturer default application circuit.

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

#240

Post by xster »

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…

that's just how neoliberalism works. In heterogeneous markets, lose money and bribe users to monopolize. Once you monopolized, all bets are off.
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