Isn't that what independent reviews are generally useful for? To try all the options and share feedback for someone to make their own choice.

"The best" for many products is often static, on the level of decades. Better e-commerce websites than Amazon will curate away all the garbage and only show you the best things. At this point you can pretty much use the top 5 results from any Amazon search to rule out things NOT to buy.

>"The best" is not a static product. If Amazon had no way for vendors to showcase their product ... Would you want to live in a world in which you CAN'T bump your placement?

Agreed about it not being static, but I don't see why ads should be that answer. The easiest way to "bump" a product is just sell it for less for an introduction period, so that people sorting Low->High will see it before the current highest rated one, at least until they get high ratings, and then can increase the price. If they're going to be losing money on marketing, it would be nicer if it goes to consumers.

If "the best" was stuck in 2005 it probably actually would still be better than what it says "the best" is today.

Amazon has turned the search ranking into a contest for who can give Jeff Bezos the most money. How is that an improvement on anything?

> Would you want to live in a world in which you CAN'T bump your placement?

Yes. I’d rather compete on quality and customer satisfaction than who can burn the most money on ads.

By making it almost necessary to buy their ads, Amazon is harming my margin.

I don’t hate all advertising, but I do hate this form, where it’s perverting search.