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10.02.06
A9 Search Embraces Live Features
 By David A. Utter
The partnership between Amazon.com and Microsoft for search services has led to a massive overhaul of the functionality for A9.com, the search engine operated by Amazon.
A9 gained a cleaner interface and continuous result scrolling while saying goodbye to its toolbar and several other programs, the site announced recently.
Features that competed with similar services to Microsoft look like the big losers in the revamp.
Live.com featured the continuous scroll for search results in one window during its beta period.
Microsoft moved that off the main search when it formally launched Live.com and its associated adCenter search advertising.
On its main page, A9 now has search groups listed under the search box. People can select categories like entertainment, news, or images, and search through various sites focused on those categories.
Users can add other premade search groups, or create custom ones out of 475 search sources.
Those sources range from the well-known to the relatively unknown. A handful of sources come from Amazon's product groups. Main web and news search results come from Live.com.
People who had bookmarks or diary entries saved with A9 can retrieve them from Amazon. The A9 Instant Rewards program has ended, though.
A9 lost features that matched offerings from Microsoft.
Those include the A9 Toolbar, which should be uninstalled now, A9 Maps, and A9 Yellow Pages including the BlockView images.
Considering the expense Amazon likely incurred in collecting BlockView photos, Microsoft must be paying handsomely for Amazon to shut this down.
Microsoft should also gain more prominence in Amazon's search marketing services, which are offered in conjunction with Efficient Frontier. AdCenter and Efficient Frontier have been working together for several months, so potential SEM clients should expect to see more from Microsoft and Amazon in the coming months.
About the Author:
David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.
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