Amazon plans to index product data from across the entire internet
Amazon is working on a project called the "World Product Graph" that would catalog data on products sold anywhere online, including items it doesn't sell, Reuters reports. It is unclear whether or when the plan will be implemented.
Amazon, the US tech company best known for its online marketplace, plans to build a vault of data on every product sold on the internet, including products it does not sell itself, and make that information available on its own site. Reuters reported the plan, citing an internal company document. The project, called the "World Product Graph," is meant to make shoppers less likely to leave Amazon for Reddit or Google when researching products.
Why it matters to the company
According to Reuters, the idea is to bring shoppers to Amazon even when they are looking for an item sold elsewhere. The same applies to AI agents that shop on users' behalf: if Amazon holds the largest stockpile of shopping data, those agents may favor its product index, so purchases made through bots would also lead to Amazon pages.
Link to the AI shopping assistant
Links to outside retailers' products have already begun appearing on Amazon through the "shop direct" feature launched last year. The company also has its own AI shopping assistant, Alexa for Shopping, previously called Rufus.
The project is also intended to improve that assistant by giving it more data. The internal document, as quoted by Reuters, says "Many Rufus answers are factually wrong or incomplete," and that running users' searches through the AI is expensive. More data is reportedly meant to make the system more accurate and allow it to use cheaper models.
Implementation remains uncertain
The document reportedly says the project "depends on discovering how brands organize their products on their own websites," which could involve Amazon crawling other retailers' sites. Reuters says it is unclear if or when the plan may be implemented, though the document lists a release date of October 1, 2027.
In a statement to Reuters, Amazon said that "Draft, outdated documents often paint an incomplete picture and the existence of a brainstorming document such as this one doesn't necessarily reflect our current plans."
