Everything that makes advertisers happy is to the detriment of humanity as a whole. Everything that makes advertisers’ jobs easier also makes it easier for authoritarian governments. “Innovation” is no longer about creating new things, it’s about taking what already works, breaking it, shoving ads on it and charging a ransom in the form of a premium subscription.
On the other hand, there are endless ad-skipping tools, pages and sites where the main attraction is the lack of ads without a subscription. More and more people are talking about how intrusive and annoying ads are, even those who make their living from them. As the efforts of big tech to please advertisers grow, so do the efforts of ordinary people to screw them.
Very Cyberpunk.
I propose we make a massive product database. If you need to buy something, you can see your options there on a level playing field. Companies who spend more money don’t get any more visibility than any other. If you don’t feel like spending any money, the database isn’t trying to push you down a spending spiral.
It would be so nice if there was one place to look for housing. So tired of rental scams.
And then for convenience, add a shopping cart so it’s not a separate research step - congrats, you’ve invented Amazon.
Amazon is everything but a level playing field and it is highly manipulated.
Congrats, you missed the whole point about Amazon.
As others already replied, the business model of Amazon (and any marketplace that sells its own products within it while being part of an oligopoly) is precisely to prevent unbiased comparison. Amazon gets data on all the products being sold on its website, its warehouses occupancy … then make Amazon Basics and replace them. They did that before also with diapers among many other examples e.g. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/07/emails-detail-amazons-plan-to-crush-a-startup-rival-with-price-cuts/ but they also do the same with software products, e.g. AWS.
So no, clearly Amazon is not about having fair comparisons and a shopping cart. Amazon is about being the ONLY shopping cart one can have fill it with Amazon products.
PS: to clarify also something very obvious but just in case it’s not so, Amazon by the simple fact of controlling the order of search results control what customers can, or can not, see and thus compare and in fine buy. Even if it did not sell it’s own products (which again, it does) it would still be able to manipulate what customers buy. That is, again, the opposite of an unbiased product comparison service.
Yes but now do a search for the item in your cart and buy it somewhere else.
I absolutely agree with you. But where I live, Amazon is cheaper than any other sellers, online or stores. I hate it but I only have so much money to spend.
If you continue to support monopolies, soon you’ll have less to spend.
Average consumers are in a lose/lose situation. Choice is a privilege that not everyone can afford.
Nah, we’re not doing this “vote with your wallet” shit anymore.
That’s just capitalist propaganda really.
Do what you need to do to survive and eek out some small form of happiness.
The time when we could actually fix these problems without direct action is long gone now.
My idea is a bit different. You would be able to define exactly what you are looking for, and the database would display the results a the order you want.
Let’s say you want a refrigerator with specific dimensions and features. Then, you would sort the results based on how loud they are, with the most silent ones at the top. You look at the results and realize that some models draw too much power, so you filter out all the E and F tier entries.
You know, basic database query stuff.