4 ms·

they finally stagnated. the site is still as unusable as when I first used it. Search and categories are complete garbage. The listings that breakdown price (

by gcb0 7y ago

they finally stagnated. the site is still as unusable as when I first used it. Search and categories are complete garbage. The listings that breakdown price (e.g. $/unit or $/Gb or $/ounce) are a inconsistent mess in the same search result, sometimes showing different units for the same product from two sellers! and I still have no idea if a listing will be OK or from a seller worse thab ebay.

toufiqbarhamov 7y ago
I can live with the unpleasant UX as far as that goes, but where it implodes for me is having to sift through endless fake reviews, counterfeits, and shit products. “Amazon’s Choice” is frequently garbage, and everything else is a coin flip at best. I have to use Fakespot just to sift through the more obvious dreck. Of course it’s AWS printing their money, not retail.
- ra1n85 7y ago
  It’s really quite surreal. Unless it’s a highly commoditized item, I don’t bother with Amazon anymore.
  - dimva 7y ago
    What do you use instead? I'd love to be able to ditch amazon for most purchases.
    - dylan604 7y ago
      Literally any thing else. For photography equipment, B&H or my local camera shop. For non-Apple computer stuff, local MicroCenter, NewEgg, etc. For non-techy stuff, local stores. Even the dollar stores have laundry soap, dish soap, etc. I've actually gotten used to taking a weekend afternoon for errands or maybe in the evenings on the way home. It's a good way to just unwind from the computer for a while. There are times to avoid certain stores (Central Market on the weekend). Shopping online pretty much means being in front of the computer all of the time.
  - bunderbunder 7y ago
    FWIW, it's still a decent place to buy books. I go to my local bookstore first, because reasons, but Amazon comes through whenever they can't source it through their distributor. But yeah, when I die, I want Amazon electronics sellers to be my pallbearers so they can let me down one last time.
- whoisjuan 7y ago
  Fakespot is pure trash. That thing doesn't work at all. According to Fakespot everything in Amazon is fake. Even small legitimate third-party sellers get bad ratings from Fakespot. But that's not even the worst part. I have found dubious listings where Fakespot didn't detect anything and gave them a semi-decent rating when it's obvious that the reviews were manipulated just by looking at them. If you want to understand a product reliability is pretty simple. Just browse the 1 and 2 star reviews. You can find a lot of valuable information about the products in those reviews. If you still want to use something to evaluate the reviews use Reviewmeta. It's much better and transparent than Fakespot.
  - bunderbunder 7y ago
    > According to Fakespot everything in Amazon is fake. http://www.chioka.in/class-imbalance-problem/ http://www.chioka.in/class-imbalance-problem/
    - paul7986 7y ago
      And probably half or more that’s on the Internet is fake too especially if it revolves around making money. I’ve told my older parent not to buy a product or use a svc based on Internet reviews.. go with personal recommendations only!
  - BeetleB 7y ago
    >According to Fakespot everything in Amazon is fake. I really don't know how good or bad fakespot is, but I get a roughly uniform distribution - it's not at all rare for me to see an A or B, and I'm pretty sure I don't see more F's than those.
sonnyblarney 7y ago
"Search and categories are complete garbage." I'm consulting in the pet space, if you search for 'Mousr' which is the name of a very cool pet toy brand that they carry - you get PC mouses (ie 'Mouse'). Not the brand 'Mousr'. So basically their 'spell correct' 'Mousr->Mouse' utterly and completely overrides the notion that the users wanted to in fact input 'Mousr' to get that product. Instead, in order to find the product, you have to type the company name 'Petronics'. FYI - if you've worked in NLP, you might recognize this problem: the edit distance from Mousr->Mouse is short, and the 'e' and 'r' keys are beside one another, and of course the word 'Mouse' is very common while the word 'Mousr' is very uncommon, leading the error correction algorithm to 'over correct'. This is a problem in NLP where very uncommon things that are lexically adjacent to common things get suppressed. Since 'Mousr' however, is 100% in the Amazon catalougue, you'd think they'd include it! But no. Consider the resulting 'lowest common denominator' approach: statistically speaking, it might be slightly more economically efficient to actually assume the error and show PC mice, besides, 'everyone' needs a PC mouse anyhow! But the interesting, long-tail stuff gets suppressed. This is to me the statistical epitome of not just Amazon, but of our new, globalized culture - the big brands have such power they just bulldoze through everything else - and the 'short run' economics are in their favour! They can point to 'the efficiency of the search' etc. to validate to everyone else in the equation (ie city councillors approving permits, banks giving loans, buyers - heck, even consumers) to validate their case on competitive, culturally secular grounds. It takes quite some magic, a loyal following, a magic meme of attention, a super faithful investor, or deep rooted cultural behaviours (like Italians who could care less about the new 'Starbucks' because they already have good coffee). Most big CEO founders have made some kind of 'big claims' or almost arbitrary statements about 'how it ought to be' and they stuck to their guns on those, I wish Bezos et. al. would think just one tiny bit about the 2cnd order effects of their businesses.
- manigandham 7y ago
  It is completely reasonable to optimize for the vast majority typing 'mouse' and potentially misspelling it. Also "mousr petronics" shows up as the 1st choice in the autocomplete when typing "mousr". This is probably one of those products that can and should have its own website and sell from there or link directly to Amazon instead.
iClaudiusX 7y ago
Using the search/filter options on the site is useless now. Most recently I was looking for a countertop hot plate/burner to replace one that finally broke (filament burned out after 15 years). Searching within the Appliances / Cooktops category, it is filled with random apparel like t-shirts and dresses for < $1. Try filtering by price to any interval and it's random kids' toys, arts and crafts supplies, tools, and sex toys. You're lucky to see one or two actual cooktops per page. Filter by 'Fuel Type: Electric' and there are only 5 actual results plus an impact socket even though there are hundreds of actual electric cooktops if you filter by brand name or surface material. It's insane. Most of the sellers and brands have names that look like someone mashed their keyboard. At this point the only way to use the site is to already know the exact brand and model you want and search from google.
- manigandham 7y ago
  What? That sounds really strange. Do you have a browser extension messing with the page? You can just use the search from the homepage. Typing "hotplate" gave autocomplete for "hotplate for cooking" which is hundreds of products: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=hotplate+for+cooking https://www.amazon.com/s?k=hotplate+for+cooking Or if you want to browse, the category homepage has all kinds of filters: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=&ref=nb_sb_noss&rh=n%3A3741261 https://www.amazon.com/s?k=&ref=nb_sb_noss&rh=n%3A3741261
  - nitrogen 7y ago
    Search and category browsing have different purposes. Search is not a substitute for a decent taxonomy. Unfortunately, MS (start menu) and Amazon seem not to realize that.
    - hbosch 7y ago
      Search is better than category browsing... you can spearfish instead of cast a net. If you had typed “hot plate” into search, you would have avoided your entire frustration... you already knew what you wanted. Amazons web site is a mess for sure, but finding a specific product is not one of those problems. The search is quite good...
petra 7y ago
>> the site is still as unusable as when I first used it. Maybe it's true, but is there someone better ? with a better search ? more valuable reviews ? As wide selection ?

by gcb0 7y ago

toufiqbarhamov 7y ago

I can live with the unpleasant UX as far as that goes, but where it implodes for me is having to sift through endless fake reviews, counterfeits, and shit products. “Amazon’s Choice” is frequently garbage, and everything else is a coin flip at best. I have to use Fakespot just to sift through the more obvious dreck. Of course it’s AWS printing their money, not retail.

ra1n85 7y ago
It’s really quite surreal. Unless it’s a highly commoditized item, I don’t bother with Amazon anymore.
- dimva 7y ago
  What do you use instead? I'd love to be able to ditch amazon for most purchases.
  - dylan604 7y ago
    Literally any thing else. For photography equipment, B&H or my local camera shop. For non-Apple computer stuff, local MicroCenter, NewEgg, etc. For non-techy stuff, local stores. Even the dollar stores have laundry soap, dish soap, etc. I've actually gotten used to taking a weekend afternoon for errands or maybe in the evenings on the way home. It's a good way to just unwind from the computer for a while. There are times to avoid certain stores (Central Market on the weekend). Shopping online pretty much means being in front of the computer all of the time.
- bunderbunder 7y ago
  FWIW, it's still a decent place to buy books. I go to my local bookstore first, because reasons, but Amazon comes through whenever they can't source it through their distributor. But yeah, when I die, I want Amazon electronics sellers to be my pallbearers so they can let me down one last time.
whoisjuan 7y ago
Fakespot is pure trash. That thing doesn't work at all. According to Fakespot everything in Amazon is fake. Even small legitimate third-party sellers get bad ratings from Fakespot. But that's not even the worst part. I have found dubious listings where Fakespot didn't detect anything and gave them a semi-decent rating when it's obvious that the reviews were manipulated just by looking at them. If you want to understand a product reliability is pretty simple. Just browse the 1 and 2 star reviews. You can find a lot of valuable information about the products in those reviews. If you still want to use something to evaluate the reviews use Reviewmeta. It's much better and transparent than Fakespot.
- bunderbunder 7y ago
  > According to Fakespot everything in Amazon is fake. http://www.chioka.in/class-imbalance-problem/ http://www.chioka.in/class-imbalance-problem/
  - paul7986 7y ago
    And probably half or more that’s on the Internet is fake too especially if it revolves around making money. I’ve told my older parent not to buy a product or use a svc based on Internet reviews.. go with personal recommendations only!
- BeetleB 7y ago
  >According to Fakespot everything in Amazon is fake. I really don't know how good or bad fakespot is, but I get a roughly uniform distribution - it's not at all rare for me to see an A or B, and I'm pretty sure I don't see more F's than those.

sonnyblarney 7y ago

"Search and categories are complete garbage." I'm consulting in the pet space, if you search for 'Mousr' which is the name of a very cool pet toy brand that they carry - you get PC mouses (ie 'Mouse'). Not the brand 'Mousr'. So basically their 'spell correct' 'Mousr->Mouse' utterly and completely overrides the notion that the users wanted to in fact input 'Mousr' to get that product. Instead, in order to find the product, you have to type the company name 'Petronics'. FYI - if you've worked in NLP, you might recognize this problem: the edit distance from Mousr->Mouse is short, and the 'e' and 'r' keys are beside one another, and of course the word 'Mouse' is very common while the word 'Mousr' is very uncommon, leading the error correction algorithm to 'over correct'. This is a problem in NLP where very uncommon things that are lexically adjacent to common things get suppressed. Since 'Mousr' however, is 100% in the Amazon catalougue, you'd think they'd include it! But no. Consider the resulting 'lowest common denominator' approach: statistically speaking, it might be slightly more economically efficient to actually assume the error and show PC mice, besides, 'everyone' needs a PC mouse anyhow! But the interesting, long-tail stuff gets suppressed. This is to me the statistical epitome of not just Amazon, but of our new, globalized culture - the big brands have such power they just bulldoze through everything else - and the 'short run' economics are in their favour! They can point to 'the efficiency of the search' etc. to validate to everyone else in the equation (ie city councillors approving permits, banks giving loans, buyers - heck, even consumers) to validate their case on competitive, culturally secular grounds. It takes quite some magic, a loyal following, a magic meme of attention, a super faithful investor, or deep rooted cultural behaviours (like Italians who could care less about the new 'Starbucks' because they already have good coffee). Most big CEO founders have made some kind of 'big claims' or almost arbitrary statements about 'how it ought to be' and they stuck to their guns on those, I wish Bezos et. al. would think just one tiny bit about the 2cnd order effects of their businesses.

manigandham 7y ago
It is completely reasonable to optimize for the vast majority typing 'mouse' and potentially misspelling it. Also "mousr petronics" shows up as the 1st choice in the autocomplete when typing "mousr". This is probably one of those products that can and should have its own website and sell from there or link directly to Amazon instead.

iClaudiusX 7y ago

Using the search/filter options on the site is useless now. Most recently I was looking for a countertop hot plate/burner to replace one that finally broke (filament burned out after 15 years). Searching within the Appliances / Cooktops category, it is filled with random apparel like t-shirts and dresses for < $1. Try filtering by price to any interval and it's random kids' toys, arts and crafts supplies, tools, and sex toys. You're lucky to see one or two actual cooktops per page. Filter by 'Fuel Type: Electric' and there are only 5 actual results plus an impact socket even though there are hundreds of actual electric cooktops if you filter by brand name or surface material. It's insane. Most of the sellers and brands have names that look like someone mashed their keyboard. At this point the only way to use the site is to already know the exact brand and model you want and search from google.

manigandham 7y ago
What? That sounds really strange. Do you have a browser extension messing with the page? You can just use the search from the homepage. Typing "hotplate" gave autocomplete for "hotplate for cooking" which is hundreds of products: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=hotplate+for+cooking https://www.amazon.com/s?k=hotplate+for+cooking Or if you want to browse, the category homepage has all kinds of filters: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=&ref=nb_sb_noss&rh=n%3A3741261 https://www.amazon.com/s?k=&ref=nb_sb_noss&rh=n%3A3741261
- nitrogen 7y ago
  Search and category browsing have different purposes. Search is not a substitute for a decent taxonomy. Unfortunately, MS (start menu) and Amazon seem not to realize that.
  - hbosch 7y ago
    Search is better than category browsing... you can spearfish instead of cast a net. If you had typed “hot plate” into search, you would have avoided your entire frustration... you already knew what you wanted. Amazons web site is a mess for sure, but finding a specific product is not one of those problems. The search is quite good...

petra 7y ago

>> the site is still as unusable as when I first used it. Maybe it's true, but is there someone better ? with a better search ? more valuable reviews ? As wide selection ?