Amazon Allegedly Deceives: Another Side of the Online Bookstore
December 10, 2021
I think Jeff Bezos, the designer of the Bezos bulldozer and its other market moving equipment, has some interest in the Washington Post. Maybe I am wrong. Will and editorial Zoom call be convened to discuss “Amazon’s Search Results Are Full of Ads Unlawfully Deceiving Consumers, New Complaint to the FTC Claims.” The story could have been given a bit more zing. (Not surprisingly, one will have to pony up some hard cash to read this Bezos related story in the Bezos associated source. What? You want something free from the Bezos centric products?) As it is, it reports:
More than a quarter of search results on Amazon are paid ads.
Yep, selling digital ad inventory is a heck of a lot easier than keeping the AWS warehouse and product fulfillment system online. And those employees? Wow. Just use scripts and smart software to plug in ads for stuff people want to buy. How does Amazon know what sells? I assume it is one of those black electronic control units found in modern vehicles and possibly the Bezos bulldozer line of market shapers.
The write up points out:
Ad sales are one of Amazon’s fastest-growing businesses, and the complaint alleges the lack of disclosures around these practices runs afoul of consumer protection law. The company delays labels indicating a search result is sponsored for several seconds after a page loads, the group claims, a practice that “deliberately obfuscat[es]” ads. The coalition’s researchers determined the company was “substantially or entirely out of compliance” with all of the federal guidelines to ensure ads can easily be distinguished from organic search results.
Like the newspapers grousing about Facebook and Google and those estimable firms’ approach to advertising, perhaps Amazon’s executives have been studying these companies’ methods. And why not? The write up says:
The research firm eMarketer estimates that Amazon’s digital ad business will hit $24.47 billion this year, up 55.5 percent from 2020, and will capture 11.6 percent of the digital ad market.
With Facebook facing headwinds and the Google getting into healing, Amazon may sense an opportunity to grows its ad market share.
Is this desire good or bad? For stakeholders, Amazon’s push into ads is good news. For those who are horrified that the online bookstore continues to diversify its revenue streams, Amazon is a dangerous driver of a Bezos branded piece of heavy equipment.
Now about that editorial meeting?
Stephen E Arnold, December 10, 2021
Amazon: Engendering Excitement and Questions about Failover and Reliability
December 8, 2021
Amazon’s big-bang conference is mostly a memory. I don’t think the conference announcements or the praise sung by the choir of Amazon faithful can top this story: “Amazon Packages Pile Up after AWS Outage Spawns Delivery Havoc.” The agility of the two-pizza method and the super duper automatic redundancy, failover ingenuity did not work. What’s affected? Just the foundation business of the online bookstore.
The write up states:
Three delivery service partners said an Amazon.com Inc. app used to communicate with delivery drivers is down. Vans that were supposed to be on the road delivering packages are sitting idle with no communication from the company, the person said. Amazon Flex drivers, independent delivery people who carry parcels in their own cars, can’t log into Amazon’s app to get assignments, said another person. The problems come amid Amazon’s critical holiday shopping season when the e-commerce giant can ill afford delays that could potentially create lasting log-jams.
Personally I don’t care too much about my deliver of household cleaner. I do worry that Amazon’s assurances for the existing GovCloud and the newly minted GovCloud West may suffer a similar meltdown. A failure to provide me with three bottles of Krud Kutter are tiny compared with fouling up top secret messaging and secured processes.
Concentration of online in the capable hands of a few technology behemoths makes sense to some MBAs. Efficiency, scale, better service, yada yada. The reality is reported in the start Detroit News’ story: Havoc. Marketing and conference talks are just easier and more exciting than maintaining a hugely complex system which is getting more difficult for some to believe in good, old Saint Bezos.
Seasons Greetings and Happy New Year!
Stephen E Arnold, December 8, 2021
Amazon: The Online Bookstore Does FinTech
December 1, 2021
Several years ago, I did a series of reports about Amazon’s push into a data marketplace. That technology is chugging along, but it appeals to the back office crowd. “Goldman Sachs Unveils Amazon Backed Cloud Service for Wall Street Trading Firms” makes clear that the back office is an important part of the Bezos bulldozer’s post-Jeff itinerary. Instead of teaming with US government agencies, the online bookstore has connected with everyone’s favorite financial institution to create a fintech cloud.
The write up reports:
The bank is opening up access to its trove of market data and software tools to hedge funds and asset managers in an offering designed with Amazon’s cloud division.
Like other Amazon back office services, many Amazon watchers will yawn. The excite swirls around Black Friday deals and Amazon’s alleged manipulation of its product search results.
How long has the online bookstore been working with the estimable Wall Street eminence? The answer is more than a decade.
Worth watching because the back office in the world of finance is possibly more lucrative than selling Amazon Basics T shirts.
Stephen E Arnold, December xx, 2021
The Bezos Bulldozer and One of Its Charming Quirks
October 22, 2021
Amazon is the Bezos bulldozer. I know. I know. He’s into space and making the world better. Nevertheless, the “trust” outfit Reuters is not buying the PR. “Amazon Copied Products and Rigged Search Results to Promote Its Own Brands, Documents Show” provides an interesting look at Amazon’s ecommerce business strategy.
The write up asserts:
… Thousands of pages of internal Amazon documents examined by Reuters – including emails, strategy papers and business plans – show the company ran a systematic campaign of creating knockoffs and manipulating search results to boost its own product lines in India, one of the company’s largest growth markets. The documents reveal how Amazon’s private-brands team in India secretly exploited internal data from Amazon.in to copy products sold by other companies, and then offered them on its platform.
Navigate to the source document for quotes, names of bulldozer drivers, and the specifics of the retail ants crushed under the steel tracks of the snorting behemoth.
Why would Amazon copy and boost its own products?
Gee, that’s a tough question. Pick from these possible reasons:
[a] Executive compensation incentives engineer rapacious methods into the ecommerce processes
[b] Because Amazon could. Hey, what’s power for if one doesn’t use it.
[c] Increasing profit results in higher stock prices and juicier bonuses for high-performing Amazon professionals
[d] It’s fun because business is a game
[e] The companies and products are little more than tests for Amazon. Follow the data.
I like the “It’s fun” answer. Because business is a game to be won.
Stephen E Arnold, October 22, 2021
Interesting Behavior: Is It a Leitmotif for Big Tech?
October 18, 2021
A leitmotif, if I remember the required music appreciation course in 1962 is a melodic figure that accompanies a person, a situation, or a character like Brünnhilde from a special someone’s favorite composer.
My question this morning on October 18, 2021, is:
“Is there a leitmotif associated with some of the Big Tech “we are not monopolies” outfits?”
You can decide from these three examples or what Stephen Toulmin called “data.” I will provide my own “warrant”, but that’s what the Toulmin’s model says to do.
Here we go. Data:
- The Wall Street Journal asserts that William “Bill” Gates learned from some Softie colleagues suggested Mr. Gates alter his email behavior to a female employee. Correctly or incorrectly, Mr. Gates has been associated with everyone’s favorite academic donor, Jeffrey Epstein, according to the mostly-accurate New York Times.
- Facebook does not agree with a Wall Street Journal report that the company is not doing a Class A job fighting hate speech. See “Facebook Disputes Report That Its AI Can’t Detect Hate Speech or Violence Consistently.”
- The trusty Thomson Reuters reports that “Amazon May Have Lied to Congress, Five US Lawmakers Say.” The operative word is lied; that is, not tell the “truth”, which is, of course, like “is” a word with fluid connotations.
Now the warrant:
With each of the Big Tech “we’re not monopolies” a high-profile individual defends a company’s action or protests that “reality” is different from the shaped information about the individual or the company.
Let’s concede that these are generally negative “data.” What’s interesting is that generally negative and the individuals and their associated organizations are allegedly behaving in a way that troubles some people.
That’s enough Stephen Toulmin for today. Back to Wagner.
Leitmotifs allowed that special someone’s favorite composer to create musical symbols. In that eminently terse and listenable Der Ring des Nibelungen, Wagner delivers dozens of distinct leitmotiv. These are possible used to represent many things.
In our modern Big Tech settings, perhaps the leitmotif is the fruits of no consequences, fancy dancing, and psychobabble.
Warrant? What does that mean? I think it means one thing to Stephen Toulmin and another thing to Stephen E Arnold.
Stephen E Arnold, October 18, 2021
Amazon and Google: Another Management Challenge
October 18, 2021
There’s nothing like two very large companies struggling with a common issue. I read “Nearly 400 Google and Amazon Employees Called for the Companies to End a $1.2 Billion Contract with the Israeli Military.” Is the story true or a bit wide of the mark? I don’t know. It is interesting from an intellectual point of view.
The challenge is a management to do, a trivial one at that.
According to the write up:
Hundreds of Google and Amazon employees signed an open letter published in The Guardian on Tuesday [presumably October 12, 2021] condemning Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion contract signed by the two companies to sell cloud services to the Israeli military and government.
Now what?
According to the precepts on the high school science club management method, someone screwed up hiring individuals who don’t fit in. The solution is to change the rules of employment; that is, let these individuals work from home on projects that would drive an intern insane.
Next up for these two giants will be a close look at the hiring process. Why can’t everyone be like those who lived in the dorm with Sergey and Larry or those who worked with Jeff Bezos when he was a simple Wall Street ethicist?
I will have to wait and see how these giant firms swizzle a solution or two.
Stephen E Arnold, October 18, 2021
Amazon AI: Redefines Defensive Driving and Some Rules of the Road
October 8, 2021
For a glimpse of the smart software which cost Dr. Timnit Gebru her role at the Google, check out “Amazon’s AI Cameras Are Punishing Drivers for Mistakes They Didn’t Make.” Now imagine this software monitoring doctors, pilots, consultants, and Amazon product teams. No, not Amazon product teams.
The write up states:
In February, Amazon announced that it would install cameras made by the AI-tech startup Netradyne in its Amazon-branded delivery vans as an “innovation” to “keep drivers safe.”… The Netradyne camera, which requires Amazon drivers to sign consent forms to release their biometric data, has four lenses that record drivers when they detect “events” such as following another vehicle too closely, stop sign and street light violations, and distracted driving.
Smart software then makes sense of the data.
The write up quotes one driver who says:
I personally did not feel any more safe with a camera watching my every move.
Safe? Nope. Hit quotas. I noted:
In June, Motherboard reported that Amazon delivery companies were encouraging drivers to shut off the Mentor app that monitors safety in order to hit Amazon’s delivery quotas.
What’s up?
- Get points for showing concern for driver safety
- Get the packages out
- Have life both ways: Safe and speedy.
Might not work, eh?
Stephen E Arnold, October 8, 2021
AWS and CloudFlare: Doing Some Math, Eating Some Pizza
October 4, 2021
I read “Unroll Thread” and noted an interesting point of information; to wit:
If 1 million people download that 1GB this month, my cost with @cloudflare R2 this way rounds up to 13¢. With @awscloud S3 it’s $59,247.52. THAT is why people are losing their minds over this. Slight correction: $53,891.16. Apologies, the @awscloud pricing calculator LOVES to slip “developer support” onto the tab.
I am not too sharp at the math thing, but at first glance it sure looks to me that Cloudflare is less costly for this type of data transfer. What’s the multiplier? Sure looks to be more that twice. On second glance, that difference is a tiny bit closer to a lot more.
Several questions:
- Will the author seek a business analysis role at AWS?
- Will either AWS or Cloudflare clarify the analysis?
- Has no other person or certified cloud professional noticed the minor discrepancy?
Interesting indeed.
Stephen E Arnold, October 4, 2021
Amazon Investigates Bribery Allegations in India
September 30, 2021
If it did happen, Amazon had nothing to do with it. That is presumably the message the company would like us to take from its investigation. TechCrunch reports, “Amazon Starts Probe Over Bribe to Gov’t Officials by its Lawyers in India, Report Says.” Writer Manish Singh tells us:
“Amazon has launched an investigation into the conduct of its legal representatives in India following a complaint from a whistleblower who alleged that one or more of the company’s reps had bribed government officials, Indian news and analysis outlet the Morning Context reported on Monday. The company is investigating whether legal fees financed by it was used for bribing government officials, the report said, which cited unnamed sources and didn’t identify the government officials. Amazon has placed Rahul Sundaram, a senior corporate counsel, on leave, the report (paywalled) added. In a statement to TechCrunch, an Amazon spokesperson said the company has ‘zero tolerance’ for corruption, but didn’t comment on the investigation.”
Singh reminds us that India is an important market for Amazon, where the company has invested billions of dollars and has been expanding aggressively. All is not going smoothly. The company is currently under an antitrust investigation in that country and Reuters recently reported it had misrepresented its relationships with major vendors and worked to circumvent India’s foreign investment regulations. To literally add insult to injury, Singh writes:
“A top-level executive at the company … was summoned and questioned earlier this year by local police over allegations that one of its political dramas on Prime Video hurt religious sentiments and caused public anger. The company later issued a rare apology to users in India over the nine-part mini series.”
An apology, no matter how rare, might not be enough to get Amazon out of this. But not to worry. We are sure the company will be able to pay any fines levied against it without breaking a sweat.
Cynthia Murrell, September 30, 2021
Amazon: How Is That Video Streaming Thing Working Out?
September 7, 2021
What could be easier? Let people sign up and pump content to people interested in live streams of games, wanna-be go-go performers, and individuals sitting in an inflate-a-pool doing whatever. What could go wrong?
In my lectures about Amazon and the Bezos bulldozer, I highlight a few of the more intriguing activities the DarkCyber research team has observed; to wit:
- A Ukrainian pole dancer live streaming a kids’ pole dancing event
- A former exotic performer riding an electric Segway bicycle wearing absolutely minimal clothing and a colorful bike helmet, a backpack, and high tops
- A person explaining how to avoid being cheated when playing card games with others who are into real time streaming
- First-run motion pictures not on Amazon Prime
- Individuals who paint their bodies in real time to mimic comic book and anime characters.
Yeah, there’s more, but you get the idea.
Now Amazon faces a hitch in its long pre-rolls, its “finder” interface, and its difficulties figuring out if ibabyrainbow is out of bounds.
I read “Twitch Finally Issues Official Statement to Streamers About the ‘Hate Raids’ Issue.” The main idea is that Twitchies are using comments to post negative comments and other possibly objectionable content objects to a “creator’s” chat.
The key passage in the write up for me was this statement:
To say that Twitch is now in disrepute is a massive understatement. Despite being the world’s arguably largest streaming platform, Twitch is not only losing viewers but also a few big-name creators that made their name there.
Defeating the Redmond outfit for JEDI and challenging NASA are possibly easier tasks.
Streamers who do hate — Streamers who boycott via #ADayOffTwitch — Streamers who coined the tag #TwitchDoBetter. Will Sagemaker come to the rescue?
Stephen E Arnold, September 7, 2021
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
