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Comment by Hammershaft | Hacker News Reader

Amazon is particularly wild because you can use the site without realizing %70 of your results are ads.

I‘d argue it‘s often 100% unless you are looking for things so extremely specific no one paid ad/placement money for it.

Not even then, because search wants to show you something and it will just randomly grab ad placements to make up the difference.

Yeah I'll often look for something specific and I'll see listings that have nothing to do with what I'm looking for. Like I think I was looking for wide mouth nipples for baby bottles, a specific brand and model, and I was seeing baby toys. Like ok, they surmised I have a baby... But don't show it to me as a result for a query for something completely different.

I can’t confirm that exact percentage, but yes—“prime” placements on Amazon are driven by Amazon Ads.

the Sponsored Brands banner at the top of the search results page, and the Top of Search Sponsored Products slots.

[1] https://advertising.amazon.com/lp/build-your-business-with-a...

>I can’t confirm that exact percentage, but yes—“prime” placements on Amazon are driven by Amazon Ads.

It's a quip, anecdata, not quantitative analysis————why would you need to "confirm that exact percentage"?

I think it was a polite way of saying "I think that is an exaggeration" and instead focusing on the part they agreed on.

I'm not trying to excuse Amazon but you do know what like, super markets, best buy etc, take ad money (promotional money?) from suppliers who pay for placement. That Samsung TV at the front being pushed at you, that's effectively ad money Samsung paid to have their TVs put at the front of the store. Those cans of Coke stacked at the end of the isle or piled up near the entrance at your super market? Coke paid to have them placed there.

I'm not saying it's good or that therefore Amazon or Apple should be excused. I'm just saying, the naieve me thought Coke was on the end of the isle because the store thought it's what customers wanted. No, it's what Coke wanted, and paid for. And it's the same with Amazon and now Apple.

When I owned a liquor store, the cigarette sales reps would all fall over themselves givings us free stuff, including straight cash, to place their cigarettes more prominently than the other brands. This would last for about a week or two until the other brand's rep would notice and up the ante.

> Those cans of Coke stacked at the end of the isle or piled up near the entrance at your super market? Coke paid to have them placed there.

Often, though endcaps are also used to move product that wasn't selling well and you want gone. But in any case, as a consumer you're usually better off ignoring products on the endcaps.

Someone's gotta explain why the tortillas are always on the end caps...

Off-topic but I hate it when stuff I'm looking for is ONLY at the end caps and not even on the end cap of an aisle that makes sense (like a particular soda at the end of the bread aisle).

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