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Bezos had gone on record many times as saying that Amazon tries out a lot of things on their site(s), and then gauges reaction to them based on usage. He talks
by sanj 19y ago
Bezos had gone on record many times as saying that Amazon tries out a lot of things on their site(s), and then gauges reaction to them based on usage. He talks about how inexpensive it is to test something new because you can just put it out there.
Over the years, I've found Amazon becoming more and more cluttered. I find myself becoming blind to useful new features because they are hidden in amongst blogs, plogs, video testimonials, recommendation, lions and tigers and bears.
In aerospace, there's the notion of new displays "buying their way into the cockpit", which is not about money, but about being worthwhile enough to share the valuable real estate with other displays. There is an acknowledgement that the existing displays will either get smaller or viewed less or both.
I'd be interested in hearing how he thinks about the fracturing of attention that occurs when there is so stuff on Amazon's pages. There's a real cost associated with that, and it feels like Amazon is not paying attention to it at all.
- Maro 19y agoI find that Amazon is getting better all the time. Eg. the recommendation system is like "magic" - the books it recommends are actually highly relevant to me.
- sanj 19y agoI agree on recommendations. But have you ever read a plog?
- pchristensen 19y agoMost people aren't laser-focused they're on Amazon - it's more like browsing in a store. Why do you think shopping is considered an activity instead of a task? If they're doing micro-testing, I can guarantee they only keep the features that increase browsing, time spent, dollars spent, etc. If it hits the mainstream, it's because testing proved it increased the metrics Amazon cares about.
- run4yourlives 19y agoI really like this point. I use Amazon a fair bit, but I wish there was a way for me to turn off half the stuff on their page. Recommendations, "users also bought" etc are not things I care about 90% of the time.
- akkartik 19y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A/B_testing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A/B_testing