Google versus Amazon?



Correction -
Google VS Amazon+Facebook+Rest of the Internet

Lately, Google has been acting like a fat-ass bully who is trying to earn respect in every possible way...including picking up fights with people whom he can't beat.
 
I've been a Prime customer for over 3 years, and use it solely for the shipping benefits.

I'm going to let my subscription expire at the end of this term, however. Lately a good portion of my orders are being delivered 1 or 2 business days later than the guaranteed delivery date. This may be a carrier issue more than an Amazon issue, but if I'm paying $99/yr + $4 for each item I order (for one-day option), then I should reasonably expect my items to arrive on time. Once in a while if one were to be delivered late, I wouldn't care. But now its once or twice a month. Not to mention, lately they stopped considering Saturday a business day in regards to shipping time.

I'm curious whether any other Prime users here (or just people who pay for the 1- or 2-day shipping) are having to deal with late deliveries?

Never used G Express but will be looking into it now.
 
-Matt- said:
I've been a Prime customer for over 3 years, and use it solely for the shipping benefits.

I'm going to let my subscription expire at the end of this term, however. Lately a good portion of my orders are being delivered 1 or 2 business days later than the guaranteed delivery date. This may be a carrier issue more than an Amazon issue, but if I'm paying $99/yr + $4 for each item I order (for one-day option), then I should reasonably expect my items to arrive on time. Once in a while if one were to be delivered late, I wouldn't care. But now its once or twice a month. Not to mention, lately they stopped considering Saturday a business day in regards to shipping time.

I'm curious whether any other Prime users here (or just people who pay for the 1- or 2-day shipping) are having to deal with late deliveries?

Never used G Express but will be looking into it now.
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I've heard about this from many people. Apparently I live near a distribution center because I've never had an issue with it or any of my other packages that don't use Amazon. I don't have Prime anymore either (nothing I get I absolutely need to have in two days since I tend to plan my online purchases months in advance), but I may be renewing in the future.

For those of you who have had shitty Prime experiences, is it the same with other shipping services or expedited shipping from other websites? Seeing as I'm buying more and more things online, I almost want to look for a metric for the quality of the delivery service and proximity to the nearest regional distribution center when I move again. I would go nuts if my packages weren't delivered on time.
 
I've heard this before, but Amazon's search results are awful. I've often had to use Google to find something that I knew was on Amazon, but could not find it on their site.
 
Relevant article, published back in July, talks about the details of Amazon partnering with the CIA/NSA/US Government:

http://www.theatlantic.com/technolo...tails-about-the-cias-deal-with-amazon/374632/

The intelligence community is about to get the equivalent of an adrenaline shot to the chest. This summer, a $600 million computing cloud developed by Amazon Web Services for the Central Intelligence Agency over the past year will begin servicing all 17 agencies that make up the intelligence community. If the technology plays out as officials envision, it will usher in a new era of cooperation and coordination, allowing agencies to share information and services much more easily and avoid the kind of intelligence gaps that preceded the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

For the first time, agencies within the intelligence community will be able to order a variety of on-demand computing and analytic services from the CIA and National Security Agency. What’s more, they’ll only pay for what they use.
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SHOTS FIRED! Amazon again going after that "casual user/Google Drive" market with a new move -- Unlimited Photo Storage? I'm actually surprised they didn't offer something like this sooner now that I think about it, especially when they first started getting heavy into the cloud stuff.

Versus The Competition

Amazon is not the first technology company to offer a massive photo storage plan for their customers – Google, Facebook, Yahoo’s Flickr and Apple do the same, but there tend to be restrictions. In Google’s case, users can upload an unlimited number of standard size photos, but full-size photos will count against their Google Drive storage quotas. Facebook offers unlimited photo storage, but limits albums to 1,000 photos and defaults to lower resolution photos unless you tell it otherwise. Flickr offers 1 TB of free storage (pretty close to feeling like “unlimited”) but includes file and upload limits. And Apple’s largest plan – 1 TB – is pricey.

Amazon says Prime Photos will not have any file or upload limits. Customers can upload photos from any device, in their original file size. But Amazon’s problem is that unlike companies like Apple and Google, it has very few smartphone customers of its own, so is at the mercy of app store dynamics in terms of getting its mobile app in the hands of new users. And unlike Flickr and Facebook, it’s not considered a “social” company where photo-sharing is the norm.

That said, the service does leverage two of Amazon’s biggest draws – its investment in web services and its popular subscription service. Now that it has the infrastructure to make unlimited photo storage a commodity, the major players will have to compete on feature set. Here, Google is potentially in the lead with its automatic photo editing technology that turns photo series into animated GIF-like images, creates stories and more. Over time, it’s features like this, combined with smart search technology that will make a photo storage service stand out. After all, what good is unlimited storage if you can’t find or enjoy your favorite photos?
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Source: Amazon Prime Members

I would think that a lot of current Amazon Prime users will be taking advantage of this. I'm wondering how much extra attention this will get from people that are not already Prime members though? Good call on not raising the price of Prime for this kind of thing too.
 
When's the last time you have ran out of storage for photos? I honestly think this feature won't really wow anyone, but it's a nice touch if you have Prime.
 
blank_czech said:
When's the last time you have ran out of storage for photos? I honestly think this feature won't really wow anyone, but it's a nice touch if you have Prime.
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I agree, but I've definitely ran into issues with file/upload limits using many of the free cloud photo storage stuff out there. I want to say the Box FREE account wouldn't even upload smaller, shorter videos and stuff like that? Stuff like that is VERY annoying when you're halfway through an uploading process dealing with a large amount of files and it gives that kind of error. A lot of these kinds of deals advertise "free", but there's always some weird catch because they need to make money.

So, I do see that feature as something "new" in a way for this target market maybe, as Amazon gets the money from the annual Prime fee and they can actually offer no file or upload limits without any catches or evolving storage limits:

Amazon says Prime Photos will not have any file or upload limits.
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SHOTS FIRED!!!

What's up "Google Now"? What's up "Siri"?

Amazon bringing the heat, no cell phone required:

Echo: [ame="http://www.amazon.com/oc/echo"]Amazon Echo - Official site - Request an invitation[/ame]


What's up Google Local/Google Places/Google My Business/Google Google Google?

Amazon Local Services: https://local.amazon.com

For Service Providers: https://local.amazon.com/merchants

What do you guys think about these moves by Amazon?

I don't think Amazon had much success with their cell phones? I guess I can see the Echo getting popular among "casual/nontechy/older" people. IMO, Echo seems to be a lot closer to the "ideal smart home concept/JETSONS future" that a lot of casual/nontechy people will likely embrace as years go on.

The Amazon Local Services announcement is interesting for sure. I would imagine certain services would do a lot better with those Amazon eyeballs on them compared to others. More info here: Amazon Quietly Reveals Local Services Push With New Web Page - Forbes

“Amazon Local Services is a new and simple way to buy professional services from pros such as plumbers, auto mechanics and yoga instructors,” said a promotional video on the site. “We’ve handpicked some of the best pros in your neighborhood and require them all to be licensed, insured and background-checked.”
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EDIT: Wow, just saw these other moves by Amazon mentioned in that article:

Amazon Travel: Exclusive: Amazon to Get Into Hotel Booking With Launch of Travel Site – Skift

Amazon Video Streaming Network, separate from Amazon Prime?: Amazon plans ad-supported video streaming: Report
 
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