Amazon.com's New A9 Search Engine: Contender or Intriguing Newcomer?
By Sage Peterson
June 2004
Launched a few weeks ago, Amazon.com's new search engine A9.com boasts some interesting capabilities and features. The A9 website states that there are 7 reasons to use its technology: "search inside the book, adjustable columns, URL short-cuts, Search History, Click History, Site Info, and Web Search (powered by Google)." While they lost me at "adjustable columns" they had my attention at the "search inside the book" functionality, which is, after all, a pretty cool feature.
This new search engine should be watched closely - not just for being a new entrant into the search engine wars -- but also for what it can become. A9 demonstrates some interesting technology concepts that may be adopted by other search engines in coming years and because of that, search engine marketers should understand those implications. But for the time being marketers can hold off on optimizing their website content for indexing by A9.
Arguably the most interesting feature of A9 is its search "inside the book" functionality. This enables searchers to view search results that may include a link to actual pages of books found in Amazon.com's catalog. As a result it offers A9 users access to content that is not yet available on other search engines.
A9 also offers a form of personalized search. It will store your search history and even click-through information so you can review past searches and selections. It will deliver search results to you based on these past searches as it learns what you like over time.
For many months, pundits and analysts have pondered the "future of search." The concept "personalized search" is talked about more and more - a search engine that knows you and learns from your search behavior, constantly improving the quality of the search results based on your search-to-click-through actions. I've never been bullish on personalized search because most scenarios require user registration and a persistent cookie to identify the searcher - if you lose or delete the cookie, you would need to log back in to gain access to these features.
Search is a tool. Search engine users have not demonstrated an interest in signing in and parting with demographic and attitudinal information just for the privilege of gaining access to something that is widely available elsewhere for free (read: Google or Yahoo); not to mention hassle-free without requiring a log-in and the fear of even more SPAM.
However, credible personalized search, characterized by true value-added functionality, may prove worth the effort to many Internet users, and may draw an audience. More importantly, what if your Amazon.com account information could be leveraged as a pre-existing profile that A9 could use to personalize search results? Compelling, but time will tell if users are willing to invest the time necessary to maintain a log-in type relationship with a search utility.
In my humble opinion, so long as A9 is a separate branded search site located on its own URL, it is not likely to challenge Google, Yahoo, MSN or AOL search in any serious way. Considering that A9 uses Google's database for its main search results, differentiation is unlikely to be sufficient to woo a large audience away from any established search player - even with some of its value-added features.
If, however, the A9 search engine were to be made part of Amazon.com - if Amazon.com recognized its future as being a vertical commerce search engine, a narrowly focused search utility located in the middle of the Amazon.com home page focused on retail products search such as those sold on Amazon, it could suddenly become a much bigger contender. It has a built-in audience base and a new value proposition - a vertical focus on e-commerce search and personalization to boot. The possibilities for genuinely targeted advertising through the many searcher profiles are also worth mentioning. A9 may have the ability to deliver advertising that could have an outstanding click-through rate; but only time will tell.
Thousands of Amazon.com subscribers might use it for many or all of their commerce related searches. A9 as a separate brand, however, is unlikely to grow legs in the very near future. But it will be interesting to watch A9 mature.
For companies engaged in search engine marketing campaigns, A9 is not worth your focus yet. Its traffic and usage pales in comparison to the major search engines and hasn't even garnered sufficient users to show up on the StatMarket radar screen for share of search referral audience.
The laws of search engine marketing dictate that you must first optimize for those engines that drive the most qualified traffic. According to StatMarket, over 90% of search traffic is today driven to Web sites by users searching Google (41%), Yahoo (27%), MSN (19%) and AOL (5%) - with the remaining audience utilizing one of ten tier-two search engines.
In short, A9 has some interesting utility, but right now, it seems a long way from being a contender.
