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If it can be gamed for profit, it will be gamed. > The tactics include pummeling rivals’ listings with overly positive or negative reviews, and repeatedly clic

If it can be gamed for profit, it will be gamed. > The tactics include pummeling rivals’ listings with overly positive or negative reviews, and repeatedly clicking on links to products they want boosted to trick Amazon’s algorithm into ranking them higher in search results Amazon is seemingly coming to this realization very late. The downfall of many search engines has been the inability to deal with the tricks that subvert their ranking systems. If you take any external signal as an indication of popularity, it will be manipulated. The overly positive reviews is an interesting spin on this manipulation; it creates seeds of doubt when a product looks like it's been overly reviewed. The "fake review" is easy to pick out. [edit: formatting]

gboudrias 8y ago
They've surely realized very early on, they've just been trying very hard to be hush about it. Can't blame them, much as I dislike them.
- taftster 8y ago
  Well that's fair. Realized AND acted on a problem vs. just realizing the problem. It unfortunately has to hit them in the public eye before they are willing to really start addressing the problem. I further contend there really is no solution. It's a war of escalation. We've seen it play out with SEO and search engines over the years. You can still "game" Google, but it's a lot harder to do it, the barrier to entry is a lot harder than it used to be when you could just list your site with a link farm. I am guessing that Amazon is in a similar war.
  - deegles 8y ago
    Maybe the current state of affairs is despite significant efforts to combat it. That would explain some of the silence on all these complaints, since "we're doing everything we can and it's still happening" is more embarrassing than "we know it's happening and we're looking into it."
    - deleted 8y ago
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gboudrias 8y ago

They've surely realized very early on, they've just been trying very hard to be hush about it. Can't blame them, much as I dislike them.

taftster 8y ago
Well that's fair. Realized AND acted on a problem vs. just realizing the problem. It unfortunately has to hit them in the public eye before they are willing to really start addressing the problem. I further contend there really is no solution. It's a war of escalation. We've seen it play out with SEO and search engines over the years. You can still "game" Google, but it's a lot harder to do it, the barrier to entry is a lot harder than it used to be when you could just list your site with a link farm. I am guessing that Amazon is in a similar war.
- deegles 8y ago
  Maybe the current state of affairs is despite significant efforts to combat it. That would explain some of the silence on all these complaints, since "we're doing everything we can and it's still happening" is more embarrassing than "we know it's happening and we're looking into it."
  - deleted 8y ago
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