5 ms·

> When The Wall Street Journal contacted Google in June, a spokesman at the internet giant, after a few days of digging, provided an update: The mystery shopper

by ardy42 6y ago

> When The Wall Street Journal contacted Google in June, a spokesman at the internet giant, after a few days of digging, provided an update: The mystery shopper is a bot of its own creation. > The purpose: making sure the all-in price for the product, including tax and shipping, matches the listing on its Google Shopping platform or in advertisements. It wasn’t to cause angst to merchants due to thousands of abandoned carts. > “We use automated systems to ensure consumers are getting accurate pricing information from our merchants,” a company spokesman said. “This sometimes leads to merchants seeing abandoned carts as a result of our system testing whether the price displayed matches the price at checkout.” You'd think they could have better identified themselves in accounts they were creating rather than creating this mysterious "John Smith" persona. Maybe "GoogleBot PriceVerifier" would have been a better choice. edit: remove my inaccurate confusion about something, and fix quotes that I'd copied from a plagiarized version of the article.

bluGill 6y ago
They need to be non traceable. If I'm doing something underhanded with pricing information I want to detect Google and other such bots and give them different information.
- inetknght 6y ago
  You really think it's wise to lie to your customers?
  - its_dario 6y ago
    No, and that's not their point. They're saying if they were to lie to their customers, they'd want to make sure they're deceiving Google. In that case, having an easy way to detect that it's Google would make that trivial.
  - eatingCake 6y ago
    If you're a medium sized corporation that is subject to the whims of individual customers, no. If you are a gigantic global company that can position itself to weather any temporary inconvenience, absolutely yes.
  - shadowgovt 6y ago
    I mean... The vast bulk of digital capitalism is information asymmetries. Lies by omission are nearly the currency of e-commerce. Is it wise to intentionally refrain from offering the same price to a human you'd offer to the Google-bot? Possibly. Depends on your goals.
teh_klev 6y ago
> It reads like it was written by someone who hasn't fully mastered English English is my first language, I didn't find the writing that terrible. It's certainly no worse than the standard of output from most large news outlets. Could you cite some examples?
- ardy42 6y ago
  > English is my first language, I didn't find the writing that terrible. It's certainly no worse than the standard of output from most large news outlets. Could you cite some examples? Sorry, it was my mistake. Before I saw the archive link, I had found a reposting on some sketchy website and got the tabs confused. That version is basically plagiarized but makes some weird word substitutions. WSJ: > For more than a year, online merchants selling items ranging from kayaks to keychains have puzzled over the mystery shopper with the generic name behind thousands of abandoned carts. Each cart has only one item. https://apkmetro.com/who-is-the-mystery-shopper-leaving-behind-all-those-online-shopping-carts/ https://apkmetro.com/who-is-the-mystery-shopper-leaving-behi...: > For greater than a 12 months, on-line retailers promoting objects starting from kayaks to keychains have puzzled over the thriller shopper with the generic title behind hundreds of deserted carts. Every cart has just one merchandise. WSJ: > The purpose: making sure the all-in price for the product, including tax and shipping, matches the listing on its Google Shopping platform or in advertisements. It wasn’t to cause angst to merchants due to thousands of abandoned carts. apkmetro plagiarization: > The aim: ensuring the all-in worth for the product, together with tax and transport, matches the itemizing on its Google Purchasing platform or in commercials. It wasn’t to trigger angst to retailers as a consequence of hundreds of deserted carts.
  - hckr_news 6y ago
    Strange. I think that second article was computer generated. I’ve seen programs that allow you to basically re-write an article or essay by running it through a program that replaces certain words with synonyms, and re-writes other parts of the essay. This person also has ads on their website and seems to be generating money through copying articles.
  - 6y ago
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

by ardy42 6y ago

bluGill 6y ago

They need to be non traceable. If I'm doing something underhanded with pricing information I want to detect Google and other such bots and give them different information.

inetknght 6y ago
You really think it's wise to lie to your customers?
- its_dario 6y ago
  No, and that's not their point. They're saying if they were to lie to their customers, they'd want to make sure they're deceiving Google. In that case, having an easy way to detect that it's Google would make that trivial.
- eatingCake 6y ago
  If you're a medium sized corporation that is subject to the whims of individual customers, no. If you are a gigantic global company that can position itself to weather any temporary inconvenience, absolutely yes.
- shadowgovt 6y ago
  I mean... The vast bulk of digital capitalism is information asymmetries. Lies by omission are nearly the currency of e-commerce. Is it wise to intentionally refrain from offering the same price to a human you'd offer to the Google-bot? Possibly. Depends on your goals.

teh_klev 6y ago

> It reads like it was written by someone who hasn't fully mastered English English is my first language, I didn't find the writing that terrible. It's certainly no worse than the standard of output from most large news outlets. Could you cite some examples?

ardy42 6y ago
> English is my first language, I didn't find the writing that terrible. It's certainly no worse than the standard of output from most large news outlets. Could you cite some examples? Sorry, it was my mistake. Before I saw the archive link, I had found a reposting on some sketchy website and got the tabs confused. That version is basically plagiarized but makes some weird word substitutions. WSJ: > For more than a year, online merchants selling items ranging from kayaks to keychains have puzzled over the mystery shopper with the generic name behind thousands of abandoned carts. Each cart has only one item. https://apkmetro.com/who-is-the-mystery-shopper-leaving-behind-all-those-online-shopping-carts/ https://apkmetro.com/who-is-the-mystery-shopper-leaving-behi...: > For greater than a 12 months, on-line retailers promoting objects starting from kayaks to keychains have puzzled over the thriller shopper with the generic title behind hundreds of deserted carts. Every cart has just one merchandise. WSJ: > The purpose: making sure the all-in price for the product, including tax and shipping, matches the listing on its Google Shopping platform or in advertisements. It wasn’t to cause angst to merchants due to thousands of abandoned carts. apkmetro plagiarization: > The aim: ensuring the all-in worth for the product, together with tax and transport, matches the itemizing on its Google Purchasing platform or in commercials. It wasn’t to trigger angst to retailers as a consequence of hundreds of deserted carts.
- hckr_news 6y ago
  Strange. I think that second article was computer generated. I’ve seen programs that allow you to basically re-write an article or essay by running it through a program that replaces certain words with synonyms, and re-writes other parts of the essay. This person also has ads on their website and seems to be generating money through copying articles.
- 6y ago

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]