Online retail giant Amazon has entered the search engine wars with their own search engine. Called A9, Amazon’s search is built around the Google search engine and uses AdWord placements, but the similarities stop there.
First reported on John Battelle’s Searchblog, A9, which is built directly on top of Google, may end up challenging its partner for search engine supremacy. Battelle calls A9 a, “very, very good service, and an intriguing move by Amazon.” He believes that the rest of the search engine world is going to have to take notice of Amazon’s entry.
The features of A9 are indeed impressive. First off, A9 is not a shopping portal. It is a distinct search engine, with no commerce links or ads on the homepage.
A9 features a downloadable toolbar that functions much like the other search engine toolbars with one exception: the diary feature. A description from A9’s about page explains it nicely. “This is the newest and (we think) coolest feature of the toolbar. You can take notes on any web page, and reference them whenever you visit that page, on any computer that you use. Your entries are automatically saved whenever you stop typing or when you go to another page.”
A9 also gives users the option of searching within the “book.” Meaning that besides search results, A9 includes book results from Amazon.com. These are actual books that pertain to the keyword. When the book link is clicked, users are taken to Amazon where the book is available for purchase.
Amazon has also introduced resizable columns. The results page can be resized as the user sees fit. If cookies are allowed, A9 remembers the size setup that the user has designated. So the next time a search is performed, the columns appear how the user sized them.
There is a user registration on A9. This is what will keep track of the user preferences that have been defined.
Search and click history are additional features that A9 offers. These history features remember what you searched and where you clicked while using A9. The search history keeps track of all the searches a user has performed. A clickable link will perform the search again. Click history keeps track of all the links you have clicked while using A9. These features are activated through signing in to A9.
Site Info, another A9 feature, will give users access to the Site Info button. When clicked, this will give a summary of the site in question.
Battelle summed Amazon’s venture up with this quote: “in short, Amazon has taken the best of Google, and made it, to my mind, a lot better. Sound familiar? Yup, it’s what Google did to Yahoo, Yahoo to Netscape…you get the picture.”
Chris Richardson is a search engine writer and editor for webproworld. Visit webproworld for the latest search news.