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Comment by giancarlostoro | Hacker News Reader

Somehow it will. Not sure when. I tire of Amazon giving me ads to things I already bought. Like someone told me they bought something you usually only buy one of like... Random example: a new toilet or something... No I dont need another one the replacement one was fine enough thank you!

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What's worse is the blatent lie of "frequently bought together", where they tell you that people frequently buy three different models of the same item, often different brands. It's like, Amazon thinks that people are completely gullible idiots. Then again . . .

You and me both.

Given everything amazon has on offer in the way of machine learning etc. is their algorithm for promoting items you might want to buy as simplistic as "I see you bought a pair of running shoes! Perhaps you might want another pair of running shoes?".

Come on amazon!

Or worse, you’re looking to sell something that you’d only need once in your life (eg: a PS4), so you list it on eBay, but now you’re getting non-stop ads to buy one.

You're more optimistic than I. Hard to overthrow the industry that specialises in manipulation.

Except they're clearly bad at it. Their biggest success is the hype about how effective their methods are with absolutely no proof.

Advertising's entire model since the beginning has been -- your competitors are doing it, can you afford not to?

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