April 02, 2006
Search and Amazon
I'm not the first to remark on this but this is my first personal experience of the problem: people search for a product, they don't "go to a store". In particular, you don't often know quite what you want.
I bought three things today: an automatic door closer to put on my window-door out to the patio, two "walk through screen doors" (I'm going to try out each).
When I started, I didn't know what I wanted - what to call it, how to "search" for it. So I didn't start at Amazon. I started by searching a bit on Google, then a bit on Yahoo. I got the name (from ads, from home improvement advice sites, from actual stores in the listings) and then I bought stuff. I never went to Amazon.
But it turns out Amazon actually has a great selection, good prices, and I don't have to sign up with all these lame shopping sites to get the order. Damn! Too late. Too bad for Amazon too.
Posted by amol at April 2, 2006 08:54 PM