Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

A Google bot scrapes pricing info by adding items to carts

wsj.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 291 posts

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

#111

Post by rabanne »

inetknght wrote: post #23
kqr wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or quietly detect the bots and feed them junk data after they've gone through the hoops. Not saying it's the better option, but knowing the business maybe the more likely one.

> Or quietly detect the bots and feed them junk data Just a few customers with alternative browsers being detected as "bots" will poison your reputation and income stream.

No, it definitely won’t. In fact our card payment system has been updated to think alternative os and browsers are high-risk and even decline payment. We didn’t have any revenue loss.

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

#113

Post by mkl »

whoisjuan wrote: post #8

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…

It seems like it will also mess up item availability information. If an item has limited stock, bots adding it to carts could make it appear out of stock to real customers.

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

#115

Post by murgindrag »

amelius wrote: post #112

It would be cool if Google could manage to become a storefront for the entire web, thereby eliminating Amazon.

For Google (or anyone) to become a storefront for the entire web, they'd need to handle scams (and errors) well.

eBay is a cesspool. Aliexpress is worse. Random web sites are bad. Amazon isn't perfect, but it's better.

Amazon also has customer service; they've always made me whole. Random web sites, I'm basically SOL. Aliexpress and eBay are random. Someone flips a coin, heads seller wins, tails buyer wins, regardless of who the scammer is.

I mostly buy from Amazon since my odds of not having problems are that much higher.

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

#116

Post by rietta »

mkl wrote: post #108
stronglikedan wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Is that US only? You need country too.

For commercial scale products you need more than that. The full address. Is the address residential vs commercial with a loading dock? That and more factors impact the shipping price a lot! Logistics companies have people who have to research an address and look at Google Earth photos of the property to answer these questions.

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

#117

Post by Alupis »

The real problem with this is from the merchant side of things.

This bot generates thousands of "Abandoned Carts" on one of our sites... thousands...

We send cart reminders to Abandoned Carts after a few days, sometimes with a coupon offer to complete checkout.

This bot is responsible for thousands of bounced emails each week, which impacts our metrics with Mandrill among other things.

Maybe we shouldn't care, but it's sloppy and ruins all sorts of stats we keep track of regarding cart abandonment rates, recapture rates and more.

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

#118

Post by malux85 »

Alupis wrote: post #117

The real problem with this is from the merchant side of things. This bot generates thousands of "Abandoned Carts" on one of our sites... thousands... We send cart reminders to Abandoned Carts after a few days, sometimes with a coupon offer to complete checkout. This bot is responsible for thousands of bounced emails each week, which impacts our metrics with Mandrill among other things. Maybe we shouldn't care, but it…

Can’t you useragent sniff the bot and cut it off?

If u want help coding this or advice happy to help (for free)

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

#119

Post by sudosysgen »

withinboredom wrote: post #77
maltelandwehr wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

„Messing up your competitors A/B test“ is not unheard of as a tactic in highly competitive ecommerce settings.

Do software engineers actually implement that? That seems pretty immoral. I'd rather let them run the a/b test and steal whatever solution they end up with.

In some contexts you do that or you're fired. Some people can't afford to be fired, so they do it.

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

#120

Post by ihumanable »

murgindrag wrote: post #115
amelius wrote: post #112

It would be cool if Google could manage to become a storefront for the entire web, thereby eliminating Amazon.

For Google (or anyone) to become a storefront for the entire web, they'd need to handle scams (and errors) well. eBay is a cesspool. Aliexpress is worse. Random web sites are bad. Amazon isn't perfect, but it's better. Amazon also has customer service; they've always made me whole. Random web sites, I'm basically SOL. Aliexpress and eBay are random. Someone flips a coin, heads seller wins, tails buyer wins, regardles…

Exactly this, the customer service for the average consumer from Amazon is very difficult to beat and is Google's biggest weakness.

Bought some cables from Amazon Basic, one ended up not working, another had some cosmetic damage but works fine. They refunded both, sent out replacements, and just told me to discard them, it wasn't worth it for Amazon to pay to have it shipped back.

Of course if you abuse this too much Amazon will ban you. If you are an honest consumer though, their customer service generally provides a great experience.

I still remember a time when everyone was afraid of purchasing stuff over the internet, Amazon has so greatly reduced the friction and concern that sometimes I find myself going from "hmm, I need something" to "it will be here tomorrow" in the matter of a minute or two.

Although more competition in this space would ultimately benefit the consumer, it seems unlikely that Google is going to be the source of that competition. They've got shopping results integrated into their search engine, and it's a feature I've maybe browsed from time to time, but I often just end up searching and purchasing on amazon directly. I don't know if I would be super comfortable purchasing from Google in the same way that I am with Amazon, too many horror stories of App Developers / YouTube Creators / etc getting caught in some sort of Machine Learning Customer Support system.

Curious if others use the Google Shopping thing in the search engine and what their experiences are with it.

Post reply on HN