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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

#301

Post by Marsymars »

some_random wrote: post #265
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…

I was told by an ex-amazon employee that amazon basics were all designed in-house. As in, they're explicitly not white-labels.

That's not the case. Take a look at amazonbasics monitor arms - they're rebadged ergotrons.

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

#302

Post by yalogin »

They do that with their content also. There is no way to only see prime videos. They constantly push their paid content onto the main feed. On top of that there is no way to restrict purchase or gate it with a password on smart TVs so it’s a bad experience. Of course amazon doesn’t much care about user experience.

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

#303

Post by [deleted] »

toasterlovin wrote: post #289
benologist wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft had a monopoly, and they leveraged it to create a monopoly, but that does not mean abuse requires a monopoly. Abuse does not require emulating any particular prior instance of abuse.

But the abuse only becomes a problem when a monopoly creates a lack of alternatives for consumers or suppliers. Amazon sellers have a plethora of other retailers who they can use to reach customers if they don't like Amazon's behavior. Netscape had no such options.

[deleted]

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

#304

Post by janesvilleseo »

yalogin wrote: post #302

They do that with their content also. There is no way to only see prime videos. They constantly push their paid content onto the main feed. On top of that there is no way to restrict purchase or gate it with a password on smart TVs so it’s a bad experience. Of course amazon doesn’t much care about user experience.

I have to enter a pin every time on my smart TVs. I thought every smart tv had that feature.

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

#305

Post by reilly3000 »

I’m not sure how this is news. Maybe I’m too in the bubble, but I thought every tech company used their platforms to promote their own wares. VScode gives me tools to build AKS clusters but not GKE clusters. Facebook wants me to use their marketplace, dating service, etc. Google is boosting Google Flights over travel sites. It’s unsavory and betrays their guise of impartiality, but is nothing close to illegal.

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

#306

Post by Marsymars »

toasterlovin wrote: post #244
benologist wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was actually abusing their platform to deliberately harm other companies that sparked the antitrust. That abuse created a monopoly but the monopoly was not why they got in trouble. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_wars

The only reason bundling IE was an issue is because Microsoft had a monopoly on PC operating systems. The monopoly is a necessary precondition for the antitrust action.

> The monopoly is a necessary precondition for the antitrust action.

If it is, it shouldn't be, and we need some similarly concise term for "action to eliminate biased incentives and promote competition for the good of the individual".

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

#307

Post by specialist »

When we finally decide to chop up these monopolies, I'd like "competing with your own clients" to be a consideration.

I don't mind that Apple runs an App Store. I mind that they have an unfair advantage over their competition.

I don't mind that Google reams advertisers. I mind that they sit on both sides of the brokerage, thereby taking advantage of their own clients.

It's like the "firewall" between financial advisors and investment ratings for those bankers. That crap needs to be kept separate, to prevent perverse incentives, self-dealing, conflicts of interest, fraud, unfair advantages, etc.

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

#308

Post by rurp »

ryandrake wrote: post #235
partialrecall wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Something seems off about that story. What's the point of requesting changes to a version of the site only he uses? I can't imagine he spends a lot of time surfing amazon.com as a regular user. Plus, not seeing the regular site means he might miss issues with the public website that he would want to change. Unless the point of the story is that Bezos doesn't realize the devs made a site just for him, but that's almost impossible to believe.

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

#309

Post by cmrdporcupine »

mattmcknight wrote: post #98
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'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.

Hence why Amazon seems to be their darndest to hide that an item is a third party seller in search results. Last I looked there was no way to filter search results to only have Amazon seller.

That's jerky.

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

#310

Post by jerhewet »

I never use Amazon's site search to try and find anything, because it's just horribly bad and broken. In my experience the more specific my search terms are, the worse the results.

If I'm looking for something on Amazon I use Google and the "site:" prefix, and use the meta returned by Google's search engines to find what I'm after.

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