I have a theory like this for Amazon: Because Amazon also sells advertising via "sponsored" or "featured" or "Amazon's Choice" listings, there is a disincentive to actually help you quickly find exactly what you want. The incentive is you feed you exactly what you want IF it's got a sponsored product, IF not, then show you similar sponsored products, and finally show you what you want after you've waded through sponsored products. Another may be the longer it takes you to find what you actually want, the more sponsored products you see and perhaps click on out of curiosity.
It's like going to a car dealership and having the salesman show you a bunch of cars you didn't ask about (but have higher margins or have been sitting on the lot longer) before finally getting to the car you actually asked for.
It’s definitely a racket, there’s a similar thing with TikTok charging users to access their own follower base, as the internet ages the companies mediating it get better and better at extracting value from each and every interaction.
I have a theory like this for Amazon: Because Amazon also sells advertising via "sponsored" or "featured" or "Amazon's Choice" listings, there is a disincentive to actually help you quickly find exactly what you want. The incentive is you feed you exactly what you want IF it's got a sponsored product, IF not, then show you similar sponsored products, and finally show you what you want after you've waded through sponsored products. Another may be the longer it takes you to find what you actually want, the more sponsored products you see and perhaps click on out of curiosity.
It's like going to a car dealership and having the salesman show you a bunch of cars you didn't ask about (but have higher margins or have been sitting on the lot longer) before finally getting to the car you actually asked for.
It’s definitely a racket, there’s a similar thing with TikTok charging users to access their own follower base, as the internet ages the companies mediating it get better and better at extracting value from each and every interaction.
what a fantastic article. thank you.
Thank you for the kind words :)
google makes me cry