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A Google bot scrapes pricing info by adding items to carts

wsj.com

31–40 of 291 posts

Re: A Google bot scrapes pricing info by adding items to carts

#31
post #18

Would it be too much for Google to program the bot to get the final price, and then delete all the items from the cart? Seems rather rude, even for Google.

Is abandoning a cart really rude behavior? I sometimes do it just to see if they'll spam me as a test of if I want to do business with a site.

Re: A Google bot scrapes pricing info by adding items to carts

#32
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This bot is simply trying to get the final price (with tax and shipping) which is ridiculous because e-commerce storefronts should do that in the first place without going through the whole checkout process. It's usually not possible because you don't know how much the shipping + taxes are until the customer enters the billing information.

Yeah that's true. But from a UX perspective there are ways to make this less opaque. Perhaps a call to action at the top of the listing with an entry box to enter the Zip Code so an approximate final price can be calculated. Any good UX designer can come up with a solution for this in a couple of hours or less. There's just no motivation to make it happen because this obfuscation of data is particularly optimized and…

ZIP code box that doesn't oblige you to provide any more accurate data, and also without it, it should still be possible to display brackets. "Shipping: $6 - $24, [enter ZIP code for detailed quote]".

Re: A Google bot scrapes pricing info by adding items to carts

#34

This bot is simply trying to get the final price (with tax and shipping) which is ridiculous because e-commerce storefronts should do that in the first place without going through the whole checkout process. I always have found that kind of shady but it's probably known to increase conversions. What I found interesting is that this an open attack vector for e-commerces. Multiple bots can hit a website and start addin…

Makes you wonder whether the smart thing to do is just make it convenient for the bots to get the info out so they won't ruin your data and waste your bandwidth. Can't fight them, join them. Can't really stop free information flow.

Or they could stop spying on their customers and trying to figure out how to add dark patterns to maximize "engagement" and "conversion" lol.

I mean yeah, I get that if you inadvertently make the checkout button hard to find, you'll lose potential sales, but I don't think you need intricate data about what your customers are doing to figure that out.

Re: A Google bot scrapes pricing info by adding items to carts

#35
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It reads like it was written by someone who hasn't fully mastered English English is my first language, I didn't find the writing that terrible. It's certainly no worse than the standard of output from most large news outlets. Could you cite some examples?

> English is my first language, I didn't find the writing that terrible. It's certainly no worse than the standard of output from most large news outlets. Could you cite some examples? Sorry, it was my mistake. Before I saw the archive link, I had found a reposting on some sketchy website and got the tabs confused. That version is basically plagiarized but makes some weird word substitutions. WSJ: > For more than a y…

Strange. I think that second article was computer generated. I’ve seen programs that allow you to basically re-write an article or essay by running it through a program that replaces certain words with synonyms, and re-writes other parts of the essay. This person also has ads on their website and seems to be generating money through copying articles.

Re: A Google bot scrapes pricing info by adding items to carts

#37
It's just price data collection. In particular, MAP policies can be skirted by not publishing a final price but having a price below MAP in the cart which is a common tactic that online sellers utilize. By pretending to walk through the cart, all sorts of data about pricing, taxes, etc. can be learned. It's not entirely uncommon to see different prices at different times, for different user agents, for different locations, etc. Used to work for a company that build huge price collection systems and built many of them...

Re: A Google bot scrapes pricing info by adding items to carts

#38
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It reads like it was written by someone who hasn't fully mastered English English is my first language, I didn't find the writing that terrible. It's certainly no worse than the standard of output from most large news outlets. Could you cite some examples?

> English is my first language, I didn't find the writing that terrible. It's certainly no worse than the standard of output from most large news outlets. Could you cite some examples? Sorry, it was my mistake. Before I saw the archive link, I had found a reposting on some sketchy website and got the tabs confused. That version is basically plagiarized but makes some weird word substitutions. WSJ: > For more than a y…

Ah, ok, that would explain things. :)

Re: A Google bot scrapes pricing info by adding items to carts

#39
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They need to be non traceable. If I'm doing something underhanded with pricing information I want to detect Google and other such bots and give them different information.

You really think it's wise to lie to your customers?

No, and that's not their point.

They're saying if they were to lie to their customers, they'd want to make sure they're deceiving Google. In that case, having an easy way to detect that it's Google would make that trivial.

Re: A Google bot scrapes pricing info by adding items to carts

#40
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This bot is simply trying to get the final price (with tax and shipping) which is ridiculous because e-commerce storefronts should do that in the first place without going through the whole checkout process. It's usually not possible because you don't know how much the shipping + taxes are until the customer enters the billing information.

I just used a website that had a simple form at the bottom of the cart. It had one text input for the postal code, and a button to get the rates to that postal code based on what was in my cart. IMHO, this is how it's done right, since all you need to know is general location and weight.

Maybe I haven’t done enough online shopping recently, but as far back as I remember this used to be the norm: enter postcode to calculate shipping, get precise final price without even adding to cart. Is it not the case anymore?
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