Amazon.com Launches New Search Service A9.com

A9.com, a new search engine service from an Amazon.com subsidiary, is now live. Clearly marked as a beta version (industry slang for "test version"), A9 is unique among the growing pack of web search firms for combining Amazon.com's "Inside the Book" search capabilities with hooks into Google. It also offers the ability to keep track of searches, since users can log in with their Amazon.com User ID.

Amazon.com didn't try to keep its Silicon Valley-based subsidiary a secret, but news references to it before today are scarce. The most comprehensive early reports are a Newsweek article (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4571035/) primarily about Google, a Forbes Magazine mention (http://www.forbes.com/ebusiness/2004/04/13/cx_ld_0413fastest.html), and an Internet News item from September 2003 (http://www.internetnews.com/ec-news/article.php/3083751).

You are reading this report on A9watch, a new blog devoted to covering A9. To subscribe via RSS feed, point your RSS Reader to a9watch.blogspot.com/atom.xml.

Experienced technology journalist Randall S. Newton is Editor-in-Chief of A9watch. He also covers technology for architecture and construction at AEC Automation Newsletter, a subscription-based site, and writes commentary for CADwire.net.