Whenever I want to make a purchase online, I search for "best _____" and add reddit as a keyword. Reading through a few threads on reddit will typically give me a pretty good idea of where to start.
Amazon has ruined search and Google is in on it
51–60 of 289 posts
Re: Amazon has ruined search and Google is in on it
#52There's also an even worse thing here. If you search for a product under shopping on google, something that is somewhat known like a certain TV model, and you'll see most SHOPPING results are from websites that actually don't sell anything, but rather will have a "product page" where either the buy button is disabled or redirects to amazon. They typically have much lower prices, or just low enough so you'll click.
From a certain perspective, you can argue Amazon has a monopoly on sales coming from search engines.
Re: Amazon has ruined search and Google is in on it
#53> I think the answer is because it’s not in their best interest to do so. They like that most consumers will look at these reviews, click through to Amazon and make their purchase with little hesitation. I don't understand the logic here. Why exactly would Google want people to thoughlessly click on Amazon affiliate links from other sites? There's no short-term beneft, since they don't get a cut. And there's no long-…
agree on that front - but giving mediocre vs high quality results on the other hand forces you to use a particular search result page more and increases the likelyhood that you'll click through a paid search link in your frustration ...
But again, the author's theory is that what's being optimized for is to get people to mindlessly click through an Amazon affiliate link and making a purchase. If people are doing that, they clearly aren't doing more searches like you suggest.
"The search results are intentionally bad to make people search more and click on ads" would be a viable conspiracy theory in isolation, but seems to directly conflict with the complaint of the search results driving people to make purchases via the pages that showed up in the organic results.
Re: Amazon has ruined search and Google is in on it
#54As for the search in question: instead of "best commuter bikes for under $500", do yourself a favor and buy a beater bike for $100-200. The comfort is the same if not higher, but you stop thinking about your bike at all, and if someone steals it you buy another one next day without shedding a tear. My favorite ones are by fahrradmanufaktur, very solid, a new one will cost you a few thousand bucks, but after 5-7 years…
With the bike shortage the last two seasons, used bikes in OK condition can be almost more expensive than a new bike (since the new, unused bike is sold out everywhere).
At least where I live, there is no chance to get what I would call a usable/durable bike for "$100-200" at the moment.
Re: Amazon has ruined search and Google is in on it
#55That spam level on search engines is increasing year on year, is a fact.
It’s also a fact the Google keeps rolling out several updates but the overall quality is getting worse no matter what.
Re: Amazon has ruined search and Google is in on it
#56Google broke itself over a decade ago when they began giving you results either that their algorithms assumed you wanted or that they wanted you to have , period. Verbatim search hardly produces anything useful anymore, either. Search has been coopted, making the prime thing (past general connectivity) that made the internet so useful now all but worthless.
For this reason I started using Yandex. Few advertisers pay for non-Russian ads, and the results are better than DuckDuckGo (in my opinion).
Re: Amazon has ruined search and Google is in on it
#57Google broke itself over a decade ago when they began giving you results either that their algorithms assumed you wanted or that they wanted you to have , period. Verbatim search hardly produces anything useful anymore, either. Search has been coopted, making the prime thing (past general connectivity) that made the internet so useful now all but worthless.
I take your point, but don’t you think you’re overstating things a bit? The internet is still incredibly useful and so is Google search (granted, it takes more effort and sophistication to avoid the spam).
Re: Amazon has ruined search and Google is in on it
#58I would argue that google is being used incorrectly here. Google is specially being asked for a product list which meets a certain criteria. The user is asking Google to recommend the best bikes.. The user is actually looking for authoritative bicycle reviews to make a purchasing decision. Searching for “bicycle reviews” would give a far higher chance of finding what the user is after. They can then use the criteria…
> Searching for “bicycle reviews” would give a far higher chance of finding what the user is after. Nope. Google will still give you dumb reviews pages full of “Check price on Amazon” affiliate links. What works for me is adding “site:reddit.com” or “forum” to search.
Some communities have their own forums they use too, and I’ve only stumbled upon these by accident. It would be nice if there were an index somewhere that kept track of them.
Re: Amazon has ruined search and Google is in on it
#59I would argue that google is being used incorrectly here. Google is specially being asked for a product list which meets a certain criteria. The user is asking Google to recommend the best bikes.. The user is actually looking for authoritative bicycle reviews to make a purchasing decision. Searching for “bicycle reviews” would give a far higher chance of finding what the user is after. They can then use the criteria…
> Searching for “bicycle reviews” would give a far higher chance of finding what the user is after. Nope. Google will still give you dumb reviews pages full of “Check price on Amazon” affiliate links. What works for me is adding “site:reddit.com” or “forum” to search.
did you actually try that query? I just got lots of relatively high quality review sites/periodicals. I say "relatively" because even industry stalwarts like Bicycling Magazine, which has been around in print and/or online form for decades, are ad-driven and far from unbiased. But if you trust Consumer Reports or NY Times more, they're on the first page too.
Re: Amazon has ruined search and Google is in on it
#60> I think the answer is because it’s not in their best interest to do so. They like that most consumers will look at these reviews, click through to Amazon and make their purchase with little hesitation. I don't understand the logic here. Why exactly would Google want people to thoughlessly click on Amazon affiliate links from other sites? There's no short-term beneft, since they don't get a cut. And there's no long-…
> There's no short-term beneft, since they don't get a cut. But they do? IMHO some of the SEO techniques use direct payments to Google for keywords, results placement, etc.
You can buy an ad, but those are shown differently than actual results. You can't pay Google to improve your SEO.