Amazon revamps its A9 search engine

September 15, 2004

While it’s been in beta for months, A9 officially goes live today, with a major upgrade and could become a one-stop search platform that offers interesting commercial possibilities that have the potential to trump traditional search players.

A9’s creator Udi Manber gave me a sneak preview of A9.com on Monday (as he did when A9 went into beta, see here), and I came away convinced that he has raised the bar for innovation in search. In short, A9 has improved its already robust "Search History" feature, added several interface innovations, and developed an architecture for searching through third-party information such as reference material or movie sites.

Most intriguing, A9 has added a "Discover" feature that brings the power of clickstreams into the mix (more on that later).

While it’s not clear that all searchers will want such a sophisticated interface, if A9 catches fire, Amazon will have created some very valuable online real estate that might very well challenge the lead Yahoo and Google have in search.

The search engine predicts what you want to find based on your history of searches.

Manber has spent the past 15 years of his life thinking about search, and when he left Yahoo last year to become CEO of A9, it was major news in the search community.

The first fruits of his new company’s efforts debuted in April. The engine employed Google’s index of Websites, but layered a robust interface on top and integrated Amazon’s Search Inside the Book feature, which shows you a full page of a book’s text surrounding any key word or phrase you are searching for.

The groundbreaking new twist in the beta version A9 was "Search History," which stores all your searches and -- if you install the A9 toolbar -- remembers where you’ve been on the web as well. Coupled with a number of other innovative features, A9 was a clear declaration by Amazon that it was a significant search player, one to watch as the ongoing push/pull drama between search and commerce unfolds.

To continue reading John Battelle's article, please click here.

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