Amazon A9.com Search Review
- Product:
- A9.com Search (website)
- What’s Good:
- Clean design/layout, interesting feature set (book search, search history)
- What’s Bad
- Missing key Google features (dictionary/definition links, image search), features not enough to make switching from Google worthwhile
After the release of Amazon’s A9.com search site in April (2004), I tried it out as my default search for a week. Since A9 uses Google’s search results, it falls on the other peripheral attributes of the site to make or break it. The way I usually conduct a web search starts through the search box built-in to the top right of the Firefox browser. I usually use Google (which is the default search in Firefox) and seldom use any other search service. After the launch of the A9 search service, I added an A9 search plugin to Firefox and set it as my default search.
Search Results
The search results come from Google, so there was no significant difference there. When logged in, the search results did offer some additional information with some listings (when you last visited a site, etc.). However, I didn’t find these features compelling enough to offset the need to login (even though a cookie can keep you logged in). The browser does a fine job of remembering what sites I’ve been to and when - having a server-side service do this as well did not add much value.
I did like the soft monochromatic orange color scheme. The site has a clean and sharp overall aesthetic.
The Book Search
The Amazon book search is really quite remarkable. Amazon.com has the text on tens of thousands of books indexed and searchable. With this service, we discovered that “silverorange” is mentioned in a book that we didn’t previously know about.
While the book search is truly remarkable, and it is unobtrusively integrated with the primary search, it is not something I would use on a regular basis. I love the idea of searching a library of printed material as well as the web, but it isn’t something that seemed helpful to do on a regular basis.
Search History
The other significant feature offered by A9 that is not available with Google is a Search History. When you are logged-in to A9, you can view a page listing your previous searches. Again, I found the idea compelling, but in practical day-to-day use, I did not find this valuable. The auto-complete option in the Firefox search box is a much quicker way to access regularly used searches.
Conclusion
I realized which features I do rely on in Google when I tried A9. The first this I missed was the Definition link in the top right of Google search results. This links to the Dictionary.com definition of the word you’ve searched for. The second feature I noticed I missed was the Google Images search and that it can be quickly and easily be selected after doing a normal Google search.
A9 offers some interesting features and is well implemented, but the features it does offer do not outweigh what it is missing when compared to Google. While I attribute some of my preference of Google to habit and familiarity, any new search service is going to have to try hard to overcome this inertia of Google-familiarity. A9 is nice, but it’s back to Google for me.
Comments
Rich - September 20, 2004 9:22 pm
One of the Google features you mentioned missing was the dictionary definition of the word you searched on, which is now available by clicking on the Reference button. Not only do you get a dictionary definition, but a thesaurus lookup, and a lexicon, at least for the few words I searched on. Also, images are a single click away with the Images button. I know your article was written in May, but an updated A9 review may be in order, now that it is in full swing.
Tony Brandner - September 21, 2004 11:54 pm
Tried A9.com for the first time, and although I love the history and personalization features, I really think the lack of functionality like this is one of the reasons that people choose google. Yahoo and some more localized search portals have has personalization for a long time.
Google is really simple, and it comes off as not tracking your usage (whether or not this is true, it's all perception).
I think that many people are a little wary about sharing their surf habits with a company like Amazon.
Or perhaps it's just the geek in me speaking.
Tony