Amazon.com has thrown its hat into the search engine ring with A9.com Search Technologies. It looks like it has help, though, as my first query noted that “Search results [are] enhanced by Google. Results also provided by A9.com, Alexa, and Amazon.com.” My initial impression of the admittedly beta site is that it’s not all that great, although some disagree. Looking at their “7 Reasons to Use A9.com,” the only compelling distinction over other search engines was the capability to search the text of books via amazon.com’s extensive database. The A9 toolbar seems to be almost a direct copy of the Google toolbar, including the fact that it only works with Internet Explorer. I guess I’ll experiment with it a little, but for now I’m not sure A9 has anything to offer over Google, by far my favorite search engine.
