Are you preparing for a summer cookout? If you head over to Amazon right now, you can pre-order the retailer’s hottest new charcoal grill: the Google Pixel Buds Pro.
Yes, that sentence you just read didn’t make a lot of sense, but Amazon’s search engine thinks it does! The algorithm has apparently decided that the new charcoal-colored headphones not only count as “charcoal grill,” but they’ve apparently been the best-selling product in that category for over 24 hours (via Reddit and Mishaal Rahman) without Amazon doing it. nothing about it
Check it out for yourself:
One of these things is not like the others. Screenshot by Sean Hollister / The Verge “#1 new release in charcoal grills,” reads the badge provided by Amazon.
In general, I wouldn’t read too much into any badge you’d see on an Amazon product. As another example, did you know that the “Amazon’s Choice” badge is not a seal of quality? It is distributed algorithmically to all kinds of products that you don’t think deserve it.
And don’t get me started on Amazon’s user reviews, although there, the company clearly knows it has a problem and takes major enforcement actions (like this recent crackdown on fake Facebook review groups) every year .
Last month, The Wall Street Journal wrote about the deluge of Chinese brands generating random letters that pop up when you search for products. It’s also interesting to see how many of them rank on the charcoal grill list, including such famous brands as RESVIN, Cecarol, Oilzz, YSSOA and DOIT.