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October 2, 2006
Amazon's A9 Becomes, Well, Sort Of Nothing
Amazon's A9 saw the loss of its driving force Udi Manber to Google earlier this year. Now two years after its launch, A9 itself has lost virtually all of its many of its distinguishing features, according to an update from the company, including:
- A9 Instant Reward program
- A9 Toolbar
- Search History
- Bookmarks
- Diary
- A9 Maps
- A9 Yellow Pages
- A9 BlockView
BlockView? They've killed BlockView? It was the best thing A9 had going for it. Of course, none of these features have helped A9 succeed as a search service. It's gone nowhere, as my A9's Low Popularity & Slower Growth post from earlier this year covers.
Frankly, A9's always felt like some type of Amazon plaything, a way for Amazon to say they were in search but also pretend it was all just an experiment, if it failed to succeed. I think the failure is now apparent, and Amazon seems to be cutting its losses pretty dramatically.
Microsoft's Windows Live search engine continues to power searches at Amazon, as it has since May. Pandia takes a closer look at what's left in Amazon’s A9 search engine redesigned.
Posted by Danny Sullivan at October 2, 2006 9:39 AM
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