Thread by @geoffreyfowler

On this, #BlackFriday, an honest question:

Is Amazon actually a good place to go shopping?

In my @washingtonpost column, I argue it’s gotten demonstrably worse. Everything on Amazon is becoming an ad.

Join me on a search for a few products 🔎🛒

wapo.st/3Xv8pxt

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@washingtonpost Yes, I know Jeff Bezos owns @washingtonpost. I’ve been covering all tech here with the same critical eye for the last 5 years.

It's time for a fresh look at Amazon.

When I search “cat beds,” everything on the 1st screen is an ad. I turned them orange.

wapo.st/3Xv8pxt

@washingtonpost Across the first 5 screens of this search, more than 50% is ads or promos of Amazon’s own products (which, lol, it doesn’t consider ads).

A decade ago, Amazon used to brag it was “customer obsessed” and matched customers with the BEST products.

wapo.st/3Xv8pxt

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@washingtonpost Today, Amazon is betraying your trust in its results to make an extra buck.

Here's the search for "4k tv" in 2015 vs today. (Orange is ads.)

Amazon is one more Big Tech company making us the product, instead of the customer.

wapo.st/3Xv8pxt

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@washingtonpost We the users want honest online shopping experiences and common-sense limits on ads that are designed to deceive.

Here’s a proposal: No more than half of any screen we see at any given time—be it on desktop web or a smartphone—should contain ads.

wapo.st/3Xv8pxt

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@washingtonpost This story is part of a @washingtonpost project I’ve been working on called We The Users, about the ways tech isn’t working for us — and identify some ways to fix it.

Check out other stories here – and let me know what else you think I should cover: wapo.st/3FI3SyY

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