Amazon, I’d Like You to Meet Google
June 28, 2008 |
Google, this is Amazon. I was wondering if you could show Amazon what an algorithm is and how to properly use one.
You see, Google, I've been an Amazon customer since 1996. I realize that due to my constant changing of ISPs in the late 90s, I lost my first account, but still, you'd think that 10 years of ordering history in this account would give Amazon an idea of what I might want to buy.
Instead, Amazon here is relying on grabbing recommendations that are so obvious my two-year-old could pick out gifts for me. Gee, I've ordered Sandman books? Who could possibly think that I might want to buy MORE Neil Gaiman products? Amazon is unable to figure out that if I've purchased Neil Gaiman maybe there are some similar things outside of his collected works. Here's a suggestion: toss The Watchmen in there, or V for Vendetta. You could probably even put the movie in there for good measure, since it's a movie based on a graphic novel.
Google, Amazon's sole achievement is mining the shopping history of other people for more suggestions. While it's nice to know that other people who bought that same Neil Gaiman novel bought other Neil Gaiman books as well, I think the recommendations should be able to drill down deeper than that.
Oh, and the other thing? Amazon here doesn't know how to properly remove things I purchase as gifts. I made the sad and sorry mistake of buying things for my mother through my account. Webkinz for all the grandchildren. And now my recommendations are full of Webkinz, which I have absolutely no desire to buy again, now or ever. I don't want one single additional stuffed animal to come into this house. Yet in order to get the stuffed animals off my list of recommendations, I have to click a button on each individual suggestion saying that I'm not interested. There isn't even a selection for "ban all items of this type in perpetuity," which I could live with.
Amazon has been around for ages, so it's obvious it must know something about selling things. But if you could please show Amazon that math really isn't that hard, and the shopping experience should change with the times, it would be great. I'll leave you two to chat.
