In The Wall Street Journal appeared a funny “exposure” bot Google.
A bot named John Smith, who always places orders on the site but leaves the page without buying anything, has been looking for online stores for more than a year.
Smith visits online stores with everything from kayaks to keychains, and can select purchases for up to 48 hours, with only one item left in each basket.
⠀
John Smith’s tricks seriously distorted the analytics that online retailers use to advertise and make business decisions.
⠀
One of Smith’s victims is FinnBin Inc., a company that sells Scandinavian baby products. For more than a year, Smith tried to make a purchase on the company’s website, turned down 73 orders; for three days in April, FinnBin Inc. had 17 abandoned baskets from a buyer.
⠀
Smith was unmasked when it was discovered that he used Gmail email addresses all the time and listed Google headquarters as his mailing address.
⠀
Google didn’t even fight back, admitting that John Smith is a bot created by the company.The bot helps confirm that the prices with all taxes and shipping listed in stores are consistent with the prices on the Google Shopping platform and in ads.
⠀
To reassure online retailers, Google has promised to study how automated systems work to avoid confusion in the future.