A9: Searching the Web for Me - Log In?
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Now once you log in (with your Amazon username and password), the other two columns become of use to you. If you don't see these columns, look to the right, they're probably collapsed. You can just drag them out! Go on, try it! (Internet Explorer only at this point)
Anyways, the last column displays your search history. This means all the terms you searched for, and how many times. This is very similar to your surfing history in Explorer. I haven't quite found a use for this yet, but I have read the opinions of people who believe this one feature will usher in the next stage of search evolution.
Also of note is that once you're logged in, you'll see an indication of elapsed time since you clicked on any of the results. Again, this hasn't proved entirely earth-shattering in usefulness for me.
What I find most interesting is the middle column, and not for it's current abilities, but more for it's potential. Right now it simply lists results from the “Search Inside the Book” engine. This is all good, but this is also where A9 is most likely to turn their attention to in the next revision of personalization. They will have information on what you've searched for, where you've clicked, and of course past purchases and behaviors on Amazon.com. So rather than some arbitrary list of books containing the text of your search, they will have the data necessary to show only the books (and DVDs, CDs...) we're more likely to buy. And if you apply this logic to the search results, we may soon be seeing only the results that we're more likely to click on.
Now that's a powerful concept. Forget having to search for “Chinese restaurant West Toronto”. Once the search engine knows enough about us, we can just ask for a restaurant, and whatever we're most likely to enjoy, whatever people like us have gone to; we can expect those results first. Now this may be in the future yet, but the very near future nonetheless!
As you would expect of anything to do with Amazon, A9 remembers who you are on your next visit, no need to log in again. This is somewhat useful as you already have your recent searches at your fingertips. I would have to say that this is much better than letting Internet Explorer remember only what you've typed into the search text field, because you also have some definition around time frames. It's much easier to find a past search where you can also remember approximately when it is you were searching for it!
So I'm sure you're as impressed as I was with all of these fancy features. But what are the implications of this start-up site for the highly competitive search engine world?
Next: The Impact on the Search World >>
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