161–170 of 510 posts
The article speaks of a tipping point and has aided in pulling it forward. Unlimited greed is what eventually sinks a company. We saw it with AltaVista in the '90's (when the search results were all ads) and Google is slowly repeating this opening a space for a competitor to jump into.
However they don't have this option probably because then none of these ads would be relevant.
By the way, another thing I've noticed is that Amazon sometimes doesn't even come up with the right products if you type the actual product name. It just comes up with suggested crap that's not what you're looking for. The actual thing I want does not come up, even on the further pages.
Often I think Amazon doesn't have the thing I want, and then I google (or duckduckgo more often) it to find it somewhere else, and the first result is... A link to Amazon with the thing I wanted! In stock, first-party and for a good price.
It's really ridiculous that I have to use a third-party search engine to find what I need when I specify exactly what I want!
It runs deeper than just everything being an ad. It's also completely flooded with rebadged junk from dropshippers. A few weeks ago, I was looking for a new whetstone, and this is what I got when I searched Amazon https://i.imgur.com/1Utp2dF.png The results keep going like that. You see constant repetition of the exact same units with slightly different branding, often with the same stock photography, repeated for pa…
It runs deeper than just everything being an ad. It's also completely flooded with rebadged junk from dropshippers. A few weeks ago, I was looking for a new whetstone, and this is what I got when I searched Amazon https://i.imgur.com/1Utp2dF.png The results keep going like that. You see constant repetition of the exact same units with slightly different branding, often with the same stock photography, repeated for pa…
Niche items are pretty much a miss on Amazon. I buy a lot of things on Amazon but as a hobbyist cook and knife collector something like whetstones are much better purchased at a specialty retailer. I trust a shop like japaneseknifeimports.com a lot more than Amazon. These shops cater to the community and the mutual success of the community and the businesses are important.
It runs deeper than just everything being an ad. It's also completely flooded with rebadged junk from dropshippers. A few weeks ago, I was looking for a new whetstone, and this is what I got when I searched Amazon https://i.imgur.com/1Utp2dF.png The results keep going like that. You see constant repetition of the exact same units with slightly different branding, often with the same stock photography, repeated for pa…
I was about to say when I saw the end of your comment, that looks very much like the AliExpress experience. You get cheap stuff, but you gamble on them being a fake.
I recently had to buy something mundane - a light bulb, with a specific lumen and color temperature spec. Weeding out all the junk listings, ads and clearly fake reviews, I ended up spending an hour trying to get to the one I wanted to buy. Had a very similar experience for another product as well. At this point, I hesitate to look up stuff on Amazon just considering the time it takes to find stuff. I much rather pre…
amazon choice and most popular tend to do a lot of the sifting you want.
It runs deeper than just everything being an ad. It's also completely flooded with rebadged junk from dropshippers. A few weeks ago, I was looking for a new whetstone, and this is what I got when I searched Amazon https://i.imgur.com/1Utp2dF.png The results keep going like that. You see constant repetition of the exact same units with slightly different branding, often with the same stock photography, repeated for pa…
That King whetstone is good, I have it and use it.
I agree with the article except for the criticism about Amazon promoting their own products. I don't mind that part. After all I go to Amazon to buy stuff from Amazon. In fact I wish I could just select a box and filter out all the third-party sellers. There is too much completely unvalidated scammy stuff on there, even in the "shipped by Amazon" category. However they don't have this option probably because then non…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are always people working in these companies that are trying to get a good product to a customer. These are slowly replaced or overruled by A/B testers who want to maximize profit. I think that process shifts the company from actually doing a service, to greed.
I dont think this is the whole picture. It is generally true that selling products and making a profit is the goal for both. Optimizing the best result for each query can result in a terrible result for the minority of shoppers for that query. More importantly, it can lead to a terrible result for the majority of shoppers across many queries. The problem is other considerations that A/B testing metrics often leave ou…