Re:A barber shop on wheels that you book via an app
by mattkrause on Saturday March 30, 2019 @07:51PM
(#19532749)
Discoverability is so, so much better in stores.
Amazon is great if you know exactly what you need, or what to compare a few, well-defined options (especially for something like a technical book, where the reviews often highlight subjective things rather than "quality").
For a lot of things, however, I don't know exactly what I want going in. In principle, Amazon's recommender system could work here, but in practice, it hews really closely to authors, series, and topics I've already bought, with a dose of total randomness (what on earth is a "Chinchilla Lava Ledge?"). There's none of the serendipity of looking for one thing and finding something similar but better.
Amazon is great if you know exactly what you need, or what to compare a few, well-defined options (especially for something like a technical book, where the reviews often highlight subjective things rather than "quality").
For a lot of things, however, I don't know exactly what I want going in. In principle, Amazon's recommender system could work here, but in practice, it hews really closely to authors, series, and topics I've already bought, with a dose of total randomness (what on earth is a "Chinchilla Lava Ledge?"). There's none of the serendipity of looking for one thing and finding something similar but better.