ot: amazon's recommendation engine
darsy
'"Romanzo Criminale" has been added to the bottom of your Rental
List....
...you may also be interested in..."Happy Feet"'
*boggle*
--
d.
CT
heh.
A few months back Amazon added Harry Fucking Potter to my list of
recommendations. When I clicked the "Why have we recommended this"
link it was because I had bought a Kaiser Chiefs CD and a USB Memory
Stick!
--
Chris
antonye
>
> A few months back Amazon added Harry Fucking Potter to my list of
> recommendations. When I clicked the "Why have we recommended this"
> link it was because I had bought a Kaiser Chiefs CD and a USB Memory
> Stick!
I'm sure that their recommendation engine is designed
to pimp their biggest profit items if it can't find any
real recommendations.
--
Antony
darsy
you're almost certainly right for sales - but why recommend something
for rental that doesn't even come close to matching my profile
history?
--
d.
antonye
>
> you're almost certainly right for sales - but why recommend something
> for rental that doesn't even come close to matching my profile
> history?
Because that title is available for rental so it's
more likely to generate income? Or maybe because
Amazon sucks big dogs cock these days.
--
Antony
darsy
ah yes. Nail/head interface situation.
--
d.
Paul Corfield
> Or maybe because
>Amazon sucks big dogs cock these days.
Out of curiosity why do you say that?
--
Paul C - "the big camp bastard" (tm d.a.r.s.y)
VFR800 | ZX6R | R1150GS
BOD#5, two#4, BOTAFOT#23, BOTAFOF#4, URMSBC#09, COFF#09
Admits to working for London Underground!
antonye
> antonye wrote:
> > Or maybe because
> >Amazon sucks big dogs cock these days.
>
> Out of curiosity why do you say that?
They've suffered from an identity crisis as they really
don't know what it is they want to sell these days - it
was all so easy when they first started selling books
at much cheaper than high street prices. Now that those
high street chains have either caught on and opened
their own online stores or have dropped the prices in
store accordingly, Amazon has tried to "branch out"
and expand it's range to keep people going back and
using them.
It started with books but now it's: Baby, Books,
DIY & Tools, DVD, Electronics & Photo, Garden & Outdoors,
Home & Garden, Homeware & Furnishings, Jewellery & Watches,
Kitchen & Dining, Music, PC & Video Games, Personal Care,
Software, Sports & Leisure, Toys & Games and Video [1].
Not content with trying to sell just about anything, they've
also started a rental business as well, and they've added
on a B2C layer so that you can get connected to other
sellers, not just Amazon, and buy their tat as well, much
like a poor man's ebay [2].
Because they're trying to peddle all this tat, the interface
has become far too crowded by trying to show you the top 3
items for just about every shopping category, the endless
lists of shit they sell, user defined lists, Amazon recommends
bollocks and adverts just confuses the hell out of me now;
it truly is a horrendous online "experience".
Even when I've been on the site to try and find stuff, for
example which DVDs are released today, you are just bombarded
with irrelevant snippets that are all designed to make you
buy more stuff. You only have to go to the homepage and try
to count the differing types of stuff they're trying to pimp,
let alone the tie-in offers with Sky, mobile phones, online
printing, Mastercard, etc, etc, to see how bad it has become.
I must admit that I take far more pleasure in walking to
the nearest bookshop and having a peruse of the shelves
these days, before heading to the local supermarket and
buying the book at a price even Amazon can't beat.
[1] List from their UK site.
[2] Such a horrid thought in itself, should one exist.
--
Antony
darsy
[snip]
I do agree with you to a large degree. The main saving grace for
Amazon, from my point of view, is that in general they have absolutely
any book, CD or DVD that you can think of.
--
d.
antonye
>
> The main saving grace for Amazon, from my point of
> view, is that in general they have absolutely
> any book, CD or DVD that you can think of.
I quite agree, and knowing what you want before
you go there makes it a nice easy site to use
and buy stuff from, but if you just want to go
and have a clickabout and browse stuff - no chance.
--
Antony
Dan White
news:1188824898.3...@d55g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...
<snip>
>
> Because they're trying to peddle all this tat, the interface
> has become far too crowded by trying to show you the top 3
> items for just about every shopping category, the endless
> lists of shit they sell, user defined lists, Amazon recommends
> bollocks and adverts just confuses the hell out of me now;
> it truly is a horrendous online "experience".
The bit that *really* fucking irritates me is that the chart rankings show
pre-orders/not yet released stuff, rather than *actual* sales of stuff that
they are shipping, and then they *also* have a pre-orders chart. Why?
--
Dan White
(d...@finex666.org.uk)
Perform an exorcism when replying.
Ben
>Not content with trying to sell just about anything, they've
>also started a rental business as well, and they've added
>on a B2C layer so that you can get connected to other
>sellers, not just Amazon, and buy their tat as well, much
>like a poor man's ebay [2].
This really gets my goat. I want to buy from Amazon. I don't want to
buy from "random_pikey_seller_01", because then I won't get my whole
order all in one go, I end up paying seemly random delivery charges,
and they're invariably all shite suppliers.
I wish they'd put some sort of filter on the search results that meant
it only showed stuff that Amazon actually sell.
--
ZX-10R
Paul Corfield
>Paul Corfield wrote:
>> antonye wrote:
>> > Or maybe because
>> >Amazon sucks big dogs cock these days.
>>
>> Out of curiosity why do you say that?
>
>They've suffered from an identity crisis as they really
>don't know what it is they want to sell these days - it
>was all so easy when they first started selling books
>at much cheaper than high street prices. Now that those
>high street chains have either caught on and opened
>their own online stores or have dropped the prices in
>store accordingly, Amazon has tried to "branch out"
>and expand it's range to keep people going back and
>using them.
Thanks for replying. I suppose I'd only subconsciously realised the
"sell everything" point but now you put it in print it certainly rings
true.
>Not content with trying to sell just about anything, they've
>also started a rental business as well, and they've added
>on a B2C layer so that you can get connected to other
>sellers, not just Amazon, and buy their tat as well, much
>like a poor man's ebay [2].
I have used this aspect a couple of times and to be fair the other
sellers have been top notch and have provided stuff that I could not
find anywhere else at all - 1 CD and a couple of books.
>Because they're trying to peddle all this tat, the interface
>has become far too crowded by trying to show you the top 3
>items for just about every shopping category, the endless
>lists of shit they sell, user defined lists, Amazon recommends
>bollocks and adverts just confuses the hell out of me now;
>it truly is a horrendous online "experience".
Again now you say it I agree with you. It is awful isn't it? I tend to
use Amazon as a research device and if I can find stuff somewhere else
then I'll buy elsewhere even if a little more expensive. I'd rather
support independent book shops if I can and if not then a high st chain
if only because I'd prefer there to still be high st book (or record)
shops at some point in the future. Call me stupid but there you go.
>I must admit that I take far more pleasure in walking to
>the nearest bookshop and having a peruse of the shelves
>these days, before heading to the local supermarket and
>buying the book at a price even Amazon can't beat.
Err I don't buy books or CDs in supermarkets for the reasons given
above.
darsy
> I'd rather
> support independent book shops if I can
why? Seriously?
Cottage industry is dead.
in the future, everything's going to come out of a vending machine,
and you may as well get used to it.
--
d.
antonye
>
> I tend to use Amazon as a research device and if I can find
> stuff somewhere else then I'll buy elsewhere even if a little
> more expensive. I'd rather support independent book shops if
> I can and if not then a high st chain if only because I'd
> prefer there to still be high st book (or record) shops at
> some point in the future. Call me stupid but there you go.
While I admire your intentions, I'd love to do the same
but really don't get the time to do it myself. There are
a couple of Waterstones and Books etc near work which
are the only places I can get to during the week - I guess
all of the independent bookshops have all been priced
out of the City through rent. I hardly ever go "into town"
at the weekend because it's such a crap thing to do and
I'd rather spend time with the kids doing constructive
stuff than dragging them round the shops. To be honest
I don't even think there are any independent book shops
in Chelmsford either!
I will confess that I visit the odd charity shop in the
search for kids books, as they'll be 10p or so each, doesn't
matter if the kids destroy them and it's pseudo helping
charity. So for me it's chuck-a-book-in-with-the-food-shop
or order it from Amazon if I know what it is and it's
(considerably) cheaper than elsewhere. The last two online
books have been The Making of Star Wars (24.99 vs 39.99) and
The Art of Ray Harryhausen which was similarly discounted,
but again only because of the big discount and free postage.
--
Antony
ogden
>
> On Mon, 03 Sep 2007 06:08:18 -0700, antonye <ant...@ukrm.net> wrote:
>
> >Not content with trying to sell just about anything, they've
> >also started a rental business as well, and they've added
> >on a B2C layer so that you can get connected to other
> >sellers, not just Amazon, and buy their tat as well, much
> >like a poor man's ebay [2].
>
> This really gets my goat. I want to buy from Amazon. I don't want to
> buy from "random_pikey_seller_01", because then I won't get my whole
> order all in one go, I end up paying seemly random delivery charges,
> and they're invariably all shite suppliers.
I've used random_pikey_sellers 01, 02, 03 and 04 on occasion with no
problems whatsoever. I've even sold books on there the same way myself.
In every case delivery was prompt, at a fixed postage rate (set by
Amazon based on item type regardless of weight) and the item was often
cheaper than Amazon's own price. Last week I bought a copy of The Road
To Wigan Pier for 14 pence (!) plus postage.
The only bit that bugs me is they recently started allowing non-UK
sellers into the UK marketplace, so all the cheap items seem to be
"Shipped from the USA", fucking up the postage rate and delivery time.
But for UK sellers, they're often cheaper and quicker than Amazon
proper, even once you add in the postage.
--
ogden
sv650 - surprisingly quick for a girl's bike