> inapplicable search results Inapplicable to whom? > product search is the ultimate advertising opportunity To me, this is what lends confidence to the idea

> inapplicable search results Inapplicable to whom? > product search is the ultimate advertising opportunity To me, this is what lends confidence to the idea that the results are hardly "inapplicable". The results may be quite applicable from Amazon's perspective. This is just a guess, but it seems unlikely that all Amazon cares about is returning the exact perfect set of results that lead you directly to what you're intending to purchase. They may know that showing seemingly random results increases impulse sales of high profit items they have in local "get it today" warehouses. Or they know that people who search for the thing you searched for are n times more likely to buy Product X impulsively, but only if they show it to you on the first Monday morning of the month. Or maybe they've lost their minds, and have tried to optimize and maximize profits from their recommendations that they're blind to much simpler approaches.