Google is Creating an Amazon Prime Competitor

#1

Post by Antelope » Sat, Dec 03, 2011, 3:28 AM UTC

Google is Creating an Amazon Prime Competitor
online.wsj.com

Re: Google is Creating an Amazon Prime Competitor

#2

Post by castewart » Sat, Dec 03, 2011, 4:35 AM UTC

Why isn't Google creating an AWS competitor? A REAL competitor- not app engine.

Re: Google is Creating an Amazon Prime Competitor

#3

Post by fufulabs » Sat, Dec 03, 2011, 5:19 AM UTC

Google is dipping its hand at EVERYTHING I wouldn't be surprised if it would go and compete with a custom cupcake business soon (taste graph + location + social "share my cupcake" potential)

Re: Google is Creating an Amazon Prime Competitor

#4

Post by madiator » Sat, Dec 03, 2011, 5:27 AM UTC

fufulabs wrote: post #3

Google is dipping its hand at EVERYTHING I wouldn't be surprised if it would go and compete with a custom cupcake business soon (taste graph + location + social "share my cupcake" potential)

While that is true, I am happy to see some serious (possibly) competition in this area.

Re: Google is Creating an Amazon Prime Competitor

#5

Post by zach » Sat, Dec 03, 2011, 5:30 AM UTC

With these companies constantly getting into each others' business, I'm reminded of the old joke:

Heaven is where the police are British, the lovers French, the mechanics German, the chefs Italian, and it is all organized by the Swiss.

Hell is where the chefs are British, the mechanics French, the lovers Swiss, the police German, and it is all organized by the Italians.

In just the last three years, Google has gotten into mobile devices, social networking and now allegedly e-commerce, Amazon now does full-on computing devices (with Google's OS) and Microsoft has the #2 search engine. This is getting hard to keep track of. And no wonder everyone keeps expecting Facebook to come out with a phone.

This report seems like the oddest one yet. Does a shipping service even qualify as organizing the world's information and making it universally accessible and useful?

Re: Google is Creating an Amazon Prime Competitor

#6

Post by yequalsx » Sat, Dec 03, 2011, 5:36 AM UTC

Until Google demonstrates that they understand how to handle customer service I will never use this service. Google is horrible when it comes to dealing with customers.

Re: Google is Creating an Amazon Prime Competitor

#7

Post by wavephorm » Sat, Dec 03, 2011, 5:37 AM UTC

fufulabs wrote: post #3

Google is dipping its hand at EVERYTHING I wouldn't be surprised if it would go and compete with a custom cupcake business soon (taste graph + location + social "share my cupcake" potential)

Google sure looks like a company trying to fight too many battles. They are trying so hard to make everyone their enemy that I think they will eventually find themselves without any friends.

Re: Google is Creating an Amazon Prime Competitor

#8

Post by Splines » Sat, Dec 03, 2011, 5:46 AM UTC

If there's one thing Amazon could use improvement on, is it's search results. Specifically, sorting them.

Seriously, I just tried it now. My complaints:

- Why do I have to pick a department to sort? (I can kind of understand this, but it's annoying)

- Why isn't shipping taken into account when I sort?

- Why are used and new prices mixed when sorting?

While I understand that Amazon can't read my mind, there are certain product categories (cell phone cases, for example) where it's like panning for gold. You need to spend a non-trivial amount of time digging for a quality case for a good price.

I don't have a solution, but it certainly feels harder than it needs to be. Searching on newegg.com feels so much better, but I suppose they have the advantage of having a very narrow focus.

Re: Google is Creating an Amazon Prime Competitor

#9

Post by thaumaturgy » Sat, Dec 03, 2011, 5:49 AM UTC

yequalsx wrote: post #6

Until Google demonstrates that they understand how to handle customer service I will never use this service. Google is horrible when it comes to dealing with customers.

Exactly. We use Prime a lot, and for Google to convince us to switch, Google's gonna have to become a completely different company.

Aside from having a lot of stuff, aside from it all being at great prices, we also know that it's backed by a company with amazing, second-to-none customer service. I've had to call up Amazon just once, for some hard-to-find solderable fuses for a special client project. The first batch I ordered shipped on time but never showed up; the client needed the machine back the day after the fuses were due to arrive. I called up Amazon to see if I could arrange overnight delivery, and not only did they do that, but they didn't charge me anything for the shipping or for the second batch of fuses. They just asked me to ship back the first batch when it finally showed up, which I did, a few days later.

Google meanwhile has a pretty rough reputation when it comes to customer service. Their attitude seems to be that "customer service doesn't scale". I think Amazon pretty handily proves that wrong. I find it difficult to believe that Google is going to be the next Amazon -- they just don't "get" people.

There are a few companies that have my undying loyalty because they've gone out of their way to be great before some competition has forced them to. Amazon is one of those.

Re: Google is Creating an Amazon Prime Competitor

#10

Post by thaumaturgy » Sat, Dec 03, 2011, 5:54 AM UTC

fufulabs wrote: post #3

Google is dipping its hand at EVERYTHING I wouldn't be surprised if it would go and compete with a custom cupcake business soon (taste graph + location + social "share my cupcake" potential)

A client gave me an earful just yesterday because I recommended using Google Chrome instead of Internet Explorer; she felt like Google was "too big" and didn't trust them anymore. I tried explaining that Chrome was a safe product anyway, but she wasn't having it.

I don't think this is a widespread problem, but it might not be too far away.