Amazon Enters Search Engine Fray With A9

Online retail giant Amazon has entered the search engine wars with their own search engine. Called 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. latest search news.