Platforms Build Global Product Graphs

Big e‑commerce platforms are moving to build comprehensive, cross‑site product knowledge graphs that index product specs, reviews, relationships and provenance from brand sites, forums and review sites. These datasets would feed proprietary shopping assistants and agents, reducing the need for customers (or AIs) to leave the platform to research products. — If platforms control the canonical product knowledge, they can capture search traffic, steer purchases, lower AI costs for themselves, and raise new antitrust, privacy, and truthfulness questions.