Slashdot Mirror
Amazon is Stuffing Its Search Results Pages With Ads (recode.net)
If it feels like Amazon's site is increasingly stuffed with ads, that's because it is. And it looks like that's working -- at least for brands that are willing to fork over ad dollars as part of their strategy to sell on Amazon. From a report: Amazon-sponsored product ads have been around since 2012. But lately, as the company has invested in growing its advertising business, they've become more aggressive. See, for example, our search below for "cereal." The first three results, which take up the whole screen above the fold -- everything visible before you scroll -- are sponsored placements that appear as search results: Ads for Kellogg's Special K, Quaker Life and Cap'n Crunch. (It's similarly dramatic on mobile, where it takes up the entire first screen.) This is followed by a section featuring Amazon's own brand, 365 Everyday Value, which was part of its Whole Foods acquisition. Not until scrolling down halfway on the next browser "page" do organic search results -- non-paid, non-Amazon brands -- come up: Post's Honey Bunches of Oats and Kellogg's Frosted Mini-Wheats and Frosted Flakes.
It has been bizarre searching for specific items and seeing the first results have nothing to do with the query, until you realize they're ads. It will be disappointing if we end up depending on Google's index of Amazon's pages to find items...
I've found the quality/ranking of amazon results to be TERRIBLE. I always do a google search when I want to find products on amazon.
"We" don't all live in the Carolinas, "We" don't all have skin in the game, "We" aren't all affected by it, and "We" don't all give a damn.
It may surprise you to learn this, but the world doesn't stop because there's a storm somewhere.
I've been to the Carolinas, nice place, nice people ... but my life is in no way impacted by this, and I'd rather every news source not be overtaken with breathless drama about things which don't impact me.
Did you run around shrieking like this when Japan was getting hit with a typhoon last week?
When you go into the store, you see a lot of items on endcaps of the aisles. They are highly visible. You see items on shelves at eye level and other items that are shelved high up or at the floor.
Why do you think some items are on endcaps, and some are shelved at eye-level as opposed to floor-level? That's right. Companies PAY to have their products placed at more desirable locations.
As you were saying, ads, ads, ads, ads, ads.
> Amazon search has been increasingly ignoring the input and just barfing out SPAM
Precisely. In the article they search for "Justin's peanut butter" because they want that specific item, but instead Amazon returns results for a bunch of Other peanut butters irrelevant to want the customer wants.
Just now I searched for "Bounty Basic towels" and instead I was hit with a bunch of brands I care nothing about. When I want cheap Basic Bounty, that's EXACTLY what I want.... not other junk,.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall