Retail, search and Amazon’s $40B ‘advertising’ business

Post by lotsofpulp » Tue, Mar 07, 2023, 1:07 PM UTC

deepGem wrote: post #146

lotsofpulp wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That said, there isn't a better alternative so I just ignore the ads and go for the product no matter how far down the page that product appears. Go to Walmart.com or Target.com and you can filter for items sold by Walmart and Target. Or eBay and Aliexpress. What Amazon is good for is cheap $20 to $100 items that you want the ability to easily return for a refund.

Sadly neither of these are allowed to sell in India. It's an Amazon/Flipkart duopoly and I personally cannot stand the Flipkart shopping interface. Millions love it.

Post by FinnKuhn » Tue, Mar 07, 2023, 1:18 PM UTC

ytdytvhxgydvhh wrote: post #151

DeathArrow wrote: post #120

I never encountered ads on Amazon, so out of curiosity I disabled uBlock Origin and visited Amazon. It seems that the ads are for products sold on Amazon. Clicking an ad redirects you to the product page. Until now I thought that sites where you go to spend money are free of ads. This is a new low. What's next, ads on banking apps? Ads on the revenue service website? I think ads play the biggest part in why the Inter…

I don’t recall whether it’s been within the app or the website but my bank has definitely shown me ads - ads for a credit card with their brand or opening a money market account. I doubt it’s that unusual for a bank to advertise like that. On the other hand, if they started showing Taboola-esque, “one weird trick” trash my opinion of them would really plummet.

Post by jefftk » Tue, Mar 07, 2023, 1:20 PM UTC

DeathArrow wrote: post #120

I never encountered ads on Amazon, so out of curiosity I disabled uBlock Origin and visited Amazon. It seems that the ads are for products sold on Amazon. Clicking an ad redirects you to the product page. Until now I thought that sites where you go to spend money are free of ads. This is a new low. What's next, ads on banking apps? Ads on the revenue service website? I think ads play the biggest part in why the Inter…

Post by jefftk » Tue, Mar 07, 2023, 1:25 PM UTC

Semaphor wrote: post #141

input_sh wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sponsored segments on YouTube. Billboards. Sponsored texts in newspapers. "YC XXX is hiring" on HN. I use Firefox + uBlock Origin + Sponsorblock and a few others. Ads are still everywhere. Not as everywhere as they'd be without it, but it's not like adblocks get rid of them all together.

Not parent, but I don’t have most of those. > Sponsored segments on YouTube I only watch music videos and very rarely a how to repair video. > Billboards I guess I sometimes see those in US TV shows ;) > newspapers I think I remember those things ;) > is hiring I guess, never saw those as ads. Though now that I think about it, I have started to want to figure out what BuildZoom does with custom homes, why YC funded t…

Post by jefftk » Tue, Mar 07, 2023, 1:26 PM UTC

sharemywin wrote: post #155

I think maybe Amazon's algo is wrong. I've seen alot of people comment that they search for a brand and get crap instead. I would think they need to take the fees they charge for a sale into account when serving ads. Also, people's previous history. If you don't buy crap don't show it high in the results. And, intent. are they really searching for a new product or just using search to find the product/brand they want