A9: Searching the Web for Me
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Amazon.com has become one of the world's largest book sellers, and it's not at all by chance. Their multitudes of cross-sell and up-sell techniques are very intelligently woven into a 'personalized' e-commerce experience. And now that they've turned their attention and expertise to the search world, we can anticipate some very exciting personalization features, to cater our searches specifically to ourselves. What are some of these features? How will they affect the world of search? Read on to find out!
Introduction
Around the middle of April this year, an email landed in my inbox, bearing the title: 'A9 it'. This was a play on the now popular term: 'Google it'. That email introduced me to a potentially awesome new development in the world of search engines. A subsidiary of Amazon.com, cloaked in the mysterious moniker of “A9”, it was and still is generating some buzz.
The first thing I wondered is “what does A9 stand for?”. And I'm still wondering, as no one seems to know (or at least if they do they're certainly not divulging that information). But I suppose there are far more important questions, such as:
- What is A9?
- What does it do differently than any other search engine?
- What implications will this have on the search world?
- Why is it so ugly?
I will strive to answer these questions as thoroughly as possible in the course of this article.
What is A9?
If you want a basic, over-simplified answer, I could tell you that A9 is just a new search engine. But in truth, it is so much more. A9 gives us a glimpse of what the future of search engines very well may be. It is clear that considerable effort has been put into creating an evolved search-engine, one that knows who you are and what you like. A search engine that returns results relevant not only to the query, but also relevant the person executing the query.
Now, as of yet, A9 is in beta form, so it's somewhat questionable just how personalized and relevant the results truly are yet. But despite it's youth, no doubt you will be excited as you read through some of the features and abilities already contained within the beta release!
Next: How is it Different? >>
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