Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

Re:Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads by majormajor on Tuesday September 11, 2018 @03:41PM (#17962662)

>That's probably true, but the truth is that situation was an unstable equilibrium in the first place. There's absolutely no reason in a functioning market to expect (or want!) one provider to be the uniform best option at all things. Eventually everyone else starts competing.

I'd say it's somewhat the reverse: Amazon was vastly better for things they sourced and sold themselves. I couldn't get everything there, but things they did have, I could trust.

They tried to expand into absolutely everything, and that's what feels like broke even my trust in the stuff they sell directly (since they also have comingling of third party inventory on that stuff, now).

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Re:Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads by ajross on Tuesday September 11, 2018 @09:33PM (#17964926)

Or... if they hadn't tried to expand into "absolutely everything", you'd be buying from Walmart right now. Obviously you can second guess any single decision of theirs and try to spin that as "The Reason" Amazon is looking less dominant.

I'm saying that no, that's silly. They're less dominant because they're seeing significant competition, and the stuff you perceive as "worse" is the inevitable result of them having to squeeze on margins or expand into higher-hanging-fruit regions of the market.

And we're all richer for it. Don't buy from Amazon, that's fine. But don't expect to live in a world where you get someone else who can dominate a market like they did, either.

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Re:Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads by daveFNbuck on Tuesday September 11, 2018 @10:24PM (#17965123)

How are we all the richer for shipping being slow and unreliable? Do counterfeit goods make us all richer?

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