TheMarkUp – “The online giant gives a leg up to hundreds of house brand and exclusive products that most people don’t know are connected to Amazon… An investigation by The Markup found that Amazon places products from its house brands and products exclusive to the site ahead of those from competitors—even competitors with higher customer ratings and more sales, judging from the volume of reviews. We found that knowing only whether a product was an Amazon brand or exclusive could predict in seven out of every 10 cases whether Amazon would place it first in search results. These listings are not visibly marked as “sponsored” and they are part of a grid that Amazon identifies as “search results” in the site’s source code. (We only analyzed products in that grid, ignoring modules that are strictly for advertising…” [It is important to exercise discretion and to take more time to locate brands and products you actually want rather than what Amazon tries  to force you to buy algorithmically. Also take the time to dig down into the so called reviews, many of which are sponsored. Due diligence will reveal actual comments that may assist you in determining whether to buy a product or not.]