
“Amazon’s Choice” is determined by an algorithm and not always reliable - minimaxir
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/nicolenguyen/amazons-choice-bad-products
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YokoZar
I was actually surprised when I learned this. The biggest complaint about
Amazon had been a lack of curation and all that entails -- foot long brooms
that photograph well, brands you've never heard of, cheap things that break
quickly, counterfeits, etc. It feels like an online dollar store, even when
you're spending thousands.

It doesn't take that much effort to have a human in the loop to pick something
for the top thousand or so product categories, and naively that's what I
expected when I saw the "Amazon's Choice" seal of approval on these things.

~~~
octosphere
> cheap things that break quickly, counterfeits, etc.

Yes I have seen my fair share of cheap shoddily made things as part of
'Amazon's Choice'. I quickly scroll past them when browsing. There is this
myth going around that because it is made in China that it is well made and
not shoddy workmanship; yet I once bought several items all from China and one
of the items literally exploded and nearly caused a fire (The product was a
shoddily made Lithium Ion rechargeable battery). I quickly complained about
this after that incident, but as expected - I got no reply and I assume the
seller doesn't even speak English as it was some tacky online storefront where
the seller liked to describe all their products in broken English.

The other product I bought was a bluetooth speaker (again from China) and the
battery in it never held charge. Had to keep charging it every 30mins, even
though it was claimed on the item page that it holds power for 6 hours. I
would nearly swear the item was second-hand and somebody knackered/exhausted
the battery before refurbishing it and selling it as new. People need to
consistently debunk the myth that because an item is made in a certain area
that it is made well and with decent workmanship. Take for example the current
myth that items made in Germany[0] are of better quality than other countries.

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Made_in_Germany](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Made_in_Germany)

~~~
some_random
It's a myth insofar as there is no direct causation. A high quality product
can be manufactured in China, and a low quality product can be manufactured in
Germany. However, what isn't a myth is that products manufactured in China are
generally of lower quality than those manufactured in first world nations like
Germany.

It's perfectly acceptable to use the nation of manufacture as a heuristic in
predicting the likely quality of a product.

~~~
solarkraft
> nation of manufacture

Barely anything sold on Amazon is _not_ made in China.

What I use to determine what to expect from a product is the quality of the
documentation, which is almost always pretty bad (but sometimes better than on
Ebay or Aliexpress).

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JohnStrangeII
I'm surprised. I've always thought that "Amazon's Choice" was paid
advertisement and have avoided these suggestions. When I buy something on
Amazon, I usually take reviews from elsewhere into account or click on the
most negative Amazon reviews to check whether there is a particular problem
with the product.

It seems hard to believe that many customers take into account some label that
looks like paid advertisement.

~~~
dahfizz
I'm curious why you think it looks like an ad?

You should also consider that the average Amazon user is not the average HN
user. Even if it was a paid ad, any sort of endorsement from Amazon would
certainly "fool" all the middle aged parents out there who can't be arsed to
do extensive research on third party reviews.

~~~
_jal
Generally: promotion has value.

Specifically: Amazon aggressively sells everything else. Why would they not
sell promotional placement?

~~~
Kalium
Amazon is typically quite clear about what's a purchased advertisement and
what isn't.

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resoluteteeth
I thought it was pretty obvious that it was generated automatically based on
how much it depends on the exact keywords you search for.

I think that given a certain set of products, the algorithm actually seems to
do a pretty good job of making a recommendation for the best product out of
the set based on the ratings or whatever it looks at, but the bigger problem
is that if you aren't searching for exactly the right keywords the choice of
the best product becomes completely meaningless, and blindly tacking on the
"amazon's choice" recommendation obscures the fact that your search is too
narrow to provide a meaningful recommendation in the first place. (I'm sure
there is some filtering based on ratings but because of how common fake
reviews are, if you're looking at niche products they'll almost all have
fairly high ratings anyway.)

It's probably better to not provide a recommendation than to recommend a bad
product, so maybe they should try to narrow it down to more common categories.

~~~
apple4ever
I always thought the same- it was based on an algorithm that took into account
review score and number purchased.

It seems to get things right most of the time, but I always look at others and
compare to be sure. Sometimes I don't get the Amazon's Choice.

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blueboo
It’s not just that oh, Amazon’s Choice is algorithmically picked from
recommendations. It’s that seemingly more often than not, it’s a truly
inferior choice to an option next to it in the displayed matrix.

~~~
dageshi
It's usually the cheapest option that's ok in my experience, which is probably
what most people are looking for.

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rc_mob
Americas Test Kitchen saves me when buying things for the kitchen. Is there
any equivalent for yard equipment and tools?

~~~
jcheng
Wirecutter has a section:

[https://thewirecutter.com/home-
garden/gardening/](https://thewirecutter.com/home-garden/gardening/)

~~~
jcomis
wirecutter is not at all reliable anymore. Nearly all their picks get massive
complaints in the comments and do not stand up to fakespot/reviewmeta. I know
comments are not really a reliable indicator, people will always complain, but
I used the site from the start and there has been a distinct shift once they
were bought out.

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derefr
Are there any browser extensions that stick _actual_ third-party human-
determined best-choice labels on things in the Amazon store? Maybe one for
Wirecutter recommendations, or Consumer Reports? Maybe a meta extension that
aggregates all those recs where you can turn the rec-sources you like on and
off in the extension?)

(It’d be nice if Amazon themselves gave you the ability to subscribe to a
given reviewer-user’s opinions and have them show up as labels on your search
results—but new features like this popping up on the Amazon store seem pretty
unlikely, somehow. Has the Amazon store stagnated?)

~~~
ikeboy
Amazon has been including "editorial reviews" on certain searches. See
[https://www.geekwire.com/2015/amazon-partners-with-the-
wirec...](https://www.geekwire.com/2015/amazon-partners-with-the-wirecutter-
to-feature-third-party-reviews-on-travel-gear/) and
[https://www.channeladvisor.com/blog/marketplaces/icymi-
amazo...](https://www.channeladvisor.com/blog/marketplaces/icymi-amazon-
expert-recommendations-what-this-new-feature-means-and-what-to-do-about-it/)

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dvdbloc
Fraud aside, seems like a more clear choice of terms to label these
“Customer’s Choice” if the label is based on higher ratings and fewer returns
etc.

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SubiculumCode
Initially I thought Amazon Choice meant it was their own product, and figured
that they'd want some minimal quality standards associated with their name.

Now that I know that it was an algorithm, I think that years ago it may have
indicated quality products, but as the review system and other aspects are
thoroughly hacked/gamed, it does the opposite. I've been purposely scrolling
past Amazon Choice items for a while now

Actually, I think I am going to drop Amazon Prime. Only money is going to
convince Amazon to right their ship.

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fapjacks
Ah. More "revelations" from Buzzfeed "news".

~~~
tzs
If you are puzzled by the downvotes, it is because you apparently have
overlooked that a few years ago, Buzzfeed hired a bunch of real journalists
and spun off BuzzFeed News as a separate, legitimate news organization, which
has gone on to win several awards for its reporting (National Magazine Award
in the category of Public Interest, two National Press Foundation awards, a
Sidney Award, a British Journalism Award, and a George Polk award), and were
finalists for the Pulitzer Prize in International Reporting twice, and for the
Online Journalism Award twice, and once for the Goldsmith Prize of
Investigation Reporting.

~~~
mft_
I didn't interpret the comment quite as you did.

Rather, I assumed it was being (rightly) critical that Buzzfeed news spent
such a lot of words and effort on a topic that wasn't especially newsworthy.
In particular, it was a frustrating read, being padded out by too many
examples and testimonials, when the real meat of the article could have been
summed up in a sentence: _" Amazon Choice recommendations are algorithmic and
not very reliable."_

(It seems to be trying to tap into the zeitgeist of looking for a critical
angle in everything that Amazon does. Which is weak and clickbait-y.)

Honestly, it's a bad (or good?) example of what the internet has made
"journalism" into - and I put journalism in quotes here not because I'm
knocking Buzzfeed news as being able to sometimes produce good journalism, but
because this isn't one of those times.

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LordAtlas
Water is wet.

~~~
dang
Ok, but please don't post unsubstantive comments here.

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Fnoord
"Google I'm Lucky" is determined by an algorithm and not always reliable. That
by itself isn't news since it doesn't describe how severe the problem is. I've
had that the first hit on Dutch Google for locksmith was a scam. That _also_
doesn't describe how severe the problem is.

A good argument about this problem contains a careful analysis (probably
involves some kind of reliable algorithm _runs_ ).

As for the lockpicking. The general locks available and in use are mostly
security through obscurity these days. Knowledge about how to pick them (or by
using a pickgun or '999' key + 'tomahawk') is abundantly available. These
locks are meant to slow an attacker down, not stop them. They're a terrible
security measure if they're the only layer of defense.

