

Amazon's data could rock Google and online advertising - roblewis
http://www.techvibes.com/blog/amazons-data-could-rock-online-advertising

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spitfire
Now _this_ is earth shattering news. Amazon is getting into ads, and has a
HUGE database of real peoples real purchasing habits. Woah.

facebook has some twee new feature, and bought out some other company, not so
much.

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socratees
And people come to amazon just to buy products. Its not facebook or something.
This is going to be seriously exciting.

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akamaka
There was an excellent interview with Jeff Bezos (I believe in HBR), where he
discussed how the company chose to enter the cloud computing market.

Faced with many excellent proposals, lots of cash to invest, and a talented
employee base, they could well have chosen to pursue all of them.

Instead, they chose just one to focus on completely.

It's not news that Amazon can enter many more markets. But if they do start
new ventures, expect a whole-hearted and long term effort. (Kindle is one such
effort that is just getting started, so I'd be very impressed if they launch
another so soon.)

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patio11
No form of advertising captures intent like search advertising. No data
source, statistics, or demograpic information comes close to a user saying "I
want to buy widgets, show me your widgets." Until Amazon or Facebook or
whomever capture intent like Google does, their advertising will be doomed to
being fractionally as effective.

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noelchurchill
When/If Amazon positions amazon.com as the place you go to search for anything
you want to buy, that's when Google really needs to start worrying.

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dflock
They kind of already are, for me at least. I know that if I decide I want to
buy something that I think Amazon probably sells, I'll just go a look it up on
Amazon directly. I have a couple of other sites that I also know and trust for
IT stuff but Amazons prices and fulfillment are generally very keen,
especially now with that they do 2nd hand and marketplace stuff. Even if you
could save a currency unit or two somewhere else, it's not really worth the
time investment to find out - Googling for random products is a massive pain -
you just get way to much shopping/price comparison/aggregator type crap back.
On reflection, this is the only time that I actually use a 'vertical' search
engine for anything. Although Amazons massive product range belies the term
vertical, everything else that I search for goes through Google, basically, so
this would make Amazon - roughly - my vertical 'purchasing' search engine.

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potatolicious
Disclaimer: I work for Amazon, but my opinions do not necessarily reflect the
company, yadi yada.

One of the things that you touched on that needs to be fleshed out more is the
fact that Googling for random products _is_ a massive pain. Not only in the
sheer volume of data you get back, but also because so little of it is
trustworthy.

Say I want to buy a new digital camera. I look at the Nikon D40 and wonder "is
it any good"? I Google up "Nikon D40 reviews" and I get a gigantic list of
pages. Some are clearly spam, others clearly astroturfing for Nikon, and
others look like they could be legitimate reviews... but you really don't
know. Signal to noise for consumer-level research _really sucks_ on Google.

Now take Amazon on the flip side (that I use all the time, and not just
because I work there). I trust the reviews that are there - because I know
that bad/good reviews are not removed or otherwise manipulated. The star
rating isn't spam, isn't fake, isn't bought and paid for like millions of
"review sites" scattered across the tubes.

Yes, there are ways to break Amazon's review system, but for the most part it
is a trustworthy metric, and although not a _complete_ replacement for in-
depth research, particularly for big-ticket items, it is still extremely
helpful for everyday shopping.

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vijayr
_Yes, there are ways to break Amazon's review system_

Why would anyone want to break Amazon's review system? There is no incentive
to do it. There are gazillion review sites because they make money through
ads, affiliate marketing etc, and lots of them are junk/spam.

The ROI in breaking Amazon's review system doesn't justify even trying it.
That is why so many people trust Amazon's reviews than any other site's.

~~~
potatolicious
I can think of at least one person: the manufacturer. If my product is
receiving poor reviews on a much-visited and trustworthy site, it would be in
my favor to skew my reviews on said website to the high end.

So while there's no reason for _Amazon_ to break the system, there are
certainly many _others_ who would.

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vaksel
Why would Amazon get into PPC advertising when they can just market their own
products? Or sell their competitor's stuff in their stores for huge commission
fees?

I mean think about it, Amazon has pretty much everything, Wouldn't they rather
display a TV that they sell, that has a $100 profit margin, instead of a
display ad for a competitor, with a $.50 cost per click.

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callmeed
First, for a lot of products on Amazon, you can choose from multiple vendors
already.

Second, I'd imagine ads like this–where you know the visitor is ready to
buy–will fetch more than $.50.

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zedwill
Thid could be big. Amazon customers have the "shopping chip" turn on.
Obviously they are going to be more engaged in ecommerce than traditional
keyword pased google placement.

Amazon already runs an API which can we used to build widgets and interactive
media to sell products. What I would like to see is Amazon opening its
platform/API to allow product page interactive applications, somewhat like
facebook did but ecommerce centric.

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andreyf
_With undoubtedly the best data in the world when it comes to purchasing
habits_

I'd imagine Walmart has pretty good data also... granted, not identifiable in
a browser session.

