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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.
Amazon search has been increasingly ignoring the input and just barfing out SPAM. Even very specific searches mix in both sponsored and otherwise promoted items to the point where exact matches often are excluded. I went looking for a bicycle chain ring I have previously bought. Multiple exact name searches and variants turned up nothing but SPAM and semi-related bicycle garbage. I figured it was no longer carriered, wrong. Google found it on Amazon and it was still quite actively sold, just not discoverable through Amazon's search. Screw Bezos.
Product name from previous order: "SHIMANO FC-CX70 Chainring"
Link to still sold product: https://www.amazon.com/gp/prod...
Link costs $39. Search result finds only a $60 option. Why am I paying for Prime, yet I get Reamed instead?
And then FEMA comes in and blunders around doing random shit trying to look like they're helping while trying to make sure they get as much press coverage as possible.
FEMA is not there to manage the entire recovery process. FEMAs job is to obtain resources (food/water, rescue workers, repair crews, etc), and get those resources to those who need them the most. It is the the job of the local government to know the community and let FEMA know what and where these resources are needed. The governor didn't even know how to contact each mayor, what hospital were open, where shelters were, or even what the heck he was doing; and it showed!
Go back and review the news, the people trying to get news coverage wasn't FEMA, it was the San Juan mayor who cried a swan song all the while in front of one of the few buildings with power/water/food. FEMA had supplies on the docks within a few days, the local government couldn't find trucks or drivers to deliver the goods; not until local truck drivers pounded down the governors door begging for routes. FEMA had rescue workers within hours of the storm passing, the local government didn't even know where to look and where to take people who needed aid. FEMA just finally found 6 trailers they gave to the government full of supplies, still loaded on the private property of a friend of a local official.
You want to know why PR is still in need, look at the government officials that were/are just looking after friends and neighbors instead of the entire community they represent. And yes, this is still going on which is why its still an issue.