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Amazon and Google are on a collision course

tech.fortune.cnn.com

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Re: Amazon and Google are on a collision course

#21

Post by 6cxs2hd6 »

adventured wrote: post #10

I had to check to make sure that article wasn't written ten years ago. "E-commerce is clearly the future of retail and there is a growing battle brewing for dominance in this new world" Where's the 1998 time stamp?

I understand what you mean, but the recent push to charge sales tax in the US -- and with huge companies like Amazon actually _supporting_ this -- is a signal that ecommerce has matured. It's the future in the sense of being the new normal for the foreseeable future, as opposed to being a new disruption.

Re: Amazon and Google are on a collision course

#22

Post by freehunter »

riggins wrote: post #17

So this is a bit of a tangent, but I'm a bit of a fan of economist Hyman Minsky (fascinating, accessible writing on economics btw). One of the really interesting things that Minsky repeatedly points out is that advertising isn't technologically necessary. It's kinda mind-boggling to step back and think that the main service (advertising) that one of the most valuable companies in world charges for is entirely unneces…

Of course advertising isn't necessary. People will find what they need. The point of advertising is to create a need, and after that, make sure that this need is fulfilled by a specific brand. People might find the best product on their own. But companies don't want you to find the best product. They want you to find their product.

Re: Amazon and Google are on a collision course

#23

Post by willismichael »

riggins wrote: post #17

So this is a bit of a tangent, but I'm a bit of a fan of economist Hyman Minsky (fascinating, accessible writing on economics btw). One of the really interesting things that Minsky repeatedly points out is that advertising isn't technologically necessary. It's kinda mind-boggling to step back and think that the main service (advertising) that one of the most valuable companies in world charges for is entirely unneces…

I don't get the downvotes - I actually found this to be an interesting comment, thinking about what would happen if we had a mechanism for product discovery other than the kinds of advertising that we get today.

Re: Amazon and Google are on a collision course

#24

Post by ereckers »

mjmahone17 wrote: post #6

Interesting. Initially, I was thinking "But Amazon could only ever eat into a small-ish percentage of Google's total revenue, because Lowe's and restaurants and such will still want to advertise on Google so long as anyone is using it for search." However, I think there's a clear avenue around that: allow Amazon to index and ship Lowes' products. This would allow stores to stop supporting their massively expensive e-…

"allow Amazon to index and ship Lowes' products. This would allow stores to stop supporting their massively expensive e-commerce operations (or significantly reduce them)"

Sounds like the "online malls" of yesteryear, maybe even a little AOLish. I can see Amazon continuing to be used as a sales channel, but I think we've already gone through that line of thinking and a place like Lowes still finds big value in running their own store.

Re: Amazon and Google are on a collision course

#25

Post by alaskamiller »

mjmahone17 wrote: post #6

Interesting. Initially, I was thinking "But Amazon could only ever eat into a small-ish percentage of Google's total revenue, because Lowe's and restaurants and such will still want to advertise on Google so long as anyone is using it for search." However, I think there's a clear avenue around that: allow Amazon to index and ship Lowes' products. This would allow stores to stop supporting their massively expensive e-…

Like toysrus.com, then they gave up.

Re: Amazon and Google are on a collision course

#26

Post by jeffasinger »

ereckers wrote: post #24
mjmahone17 wrote: post #6

Interesting. Initially, I was thinking "But Amazon could only ever eat into a small-ish percentage of Google's total revenue, because Lowe's and restaurants and such will still want to advertise on Google so long as anyone is using it for search." However, I think there's a clear avenue around that: allow Amazon to index and ship Lowes' products. This would allow stores to stop supporting their massively expensive e-…

"allow Amazon to index and ship Lowes' products. This would allow stores to stop supporting their massively expensive e-commerce operations (or significantly reduce them)" Sounds like the "online malls" of yesteryear, maybe even a little AOLish. I can see Amazon continuing to be used as a sales channel, but I think we've already gone through that line of thinking and a place like Lowes still finds big value in runnin…

Amazon already is showing links and products from competing sites. This isn't that far fetched.

Re: Amazon and Google are on a collision course

#27

Post by toomuchtodo »

mjmahone17 wrote: post #6

Interesting. Initially, I was thinking "But Amazon could only ever eat into a small-ish percentage of Google's total revenue, because Lowe's and restaurants and such will still want to advertise on Google so long as anyone is using it for search." However, I think there's a clear avenue around that: allow Amazon to index and ship Lowes' products. This would allow stores to stop supporting their massively expensive e-…

Will Amazon be willing to customize their engine to meet the needs of specific markets? Not everything is "sell item X to person Y, ship to Z".

Re: Amazon and Google are on a collision course

#28

Post by ipsin »

A quote from wikipedia: "in May 2012, Google announced that the service (which was also immediately renamed Google Shopping) would shift in late-2012 to a paid model where merchants would have to pay the company in order to list their products on the service."

This pretty much ended my use of Google for shopping queries. I still tried it a few times after that, but the quality of the search results is so sparse and poor that I end up using Yahoo! Shopping (yes, really) before giving up and going to Amazon.

Re: Amazon and Google are on a collision course

#29

Post by MBCook »

ereckers wrote: post #24
mjmahone17 wrote: post #6

Interesting. Initially, I was thinking "But Amazon could only ever eat into a small-ish percentage of Google's total revenue, because Lowe's and restaurants and such will still want to advertise on Google so long as anyone is using it for search." However, I think there's a clear avenue around that: allow Amazon to index and ship Lowes' products. This would allow stores to stop supporting their massively expensive e-…

"allow Amazon to index and ship Lowes' products. This would allow stores to stop supporting their massively expensive e-commerce operations (or significantly reduce them)" Sounds like the "online malls" of yesteryear, maybe even a little AOLish. I can see Amazon continuing to be used as a sales channel, but I think we've already gone through that line of thinking and a place like Lowes still finds big value in runnin…

This is what Borders used to do. For some insane reason their online shopping site was run by Amazon, their biggest competitor.

Re: Amazon and Google are on a collision course

#30

Post by jeffasinger »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #27
mjmahone17 wrote: post #6

Interesting. Initially, I was thinking "But Amazon could only ever eat into a small-ish percentage of Google's total revenue, because Lowe's and restaurants and such will still want to advertise on Google so long as anyone is using it for search." However, I think there's a clear avenue around that: allow Amazon to index and ship Lowes' products. This would allow stores to stop supporting their massively expensive e-…

Will Amazon be willing to customize their engine to meet the needs of specific markets? Not everything is "sell item X to person Y, ship to Z".

Yea, in store pickup, and local delivery by a store are two things I doubt Amazon is prepared to handle well.
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