Amazon.com joined the search engine bandwagon on Tuesday evening. Amazon.com released a version of its search engine, www.a9.com. My opinions are definitely biased after using Google for a fairly long time. Its been two days I have been flirting around with a9. Definitely not love at first sight. And the fact that its Web and image search is based on results by Google surely takes the charm of a new search engine away. To me, it simply means that dont expect to find anything startling different on a9 from that on Google if its just search that you are looking for. And yes, if you are used to Google, the search results are a bit slower. Obviously! However, until a9 gets out of Beta, I would try and steer clear from making any judgements on its performance.
On the other hand, if you are doing a study or a research on some topic, a9 could prove pretty resourceful. For a search item, a9 comes with options to enable the search results for various categories in addition to the Web and image search. You can enable search results for your keywords in related books, movie databases and encyclopaedic reference alongside the Web and image search. For someone really keen on taking notes in context of the search query, a9 offers a feature called Diary. However, to create new entries in your Diary you have to have the a9 search toolbar enabled! Thats kinda drag.
My initial feedback to a9 - Dont confuse search with research!
4 comments:
Actually they launched the release version of A9. It was in beta all along. So the launch was to showcase that now its not beta anymore. Agreed, that they are not doing an earth shattering change in the way the search is done, but it is definitely a breakthrough in the way the search results are displayed. Think about more of it as a search aggregation, rather than search itself.
Did you try to drag the URL that is displayed as a search result and try to drop it into the bookmarks area? Also, if you sign-in, they store all your historical searches. So you dont scratch you head thinking about the mega-super search that you found a few days ago.
Breakthrough - I wouldn't go that far! Elegant and comprehensive organization - Yep. And as for the features like dictionary, encyclopaedia, related books, related movies, its getting common. One can find it on a not-so-loveable search engine like msn as well. As I said earlier, if I was researching a topic like Iraq War, Vietnam War or like Dachau, Germany, the organization on a9 would surely come handy.
The key differentiator is the ability to recognize "you" the next time you visit A9. Which search engine has that ability currently? Google? MSN? Yahoo? None.
Check out some more insightful marketing/positioning perspective here:
http://marketingplaybook.com/2004/09/16/a9_what_play_is_it.html
As an end-user of a search engine, the first thing I was looking in a9, a "new" search engine, was a new and a more compelling search technology. Ofcourse, newer and more compelling than google. I didnt find that. Alright! The fact that I have to login offsets what it delivers. As for search history, yes, there are both sides. As I have mentioned in my blog, if I am researching, I sure would love to have my search history saved. But, having now used it for a week, I realize that the history it keeps gets cluttered if you are trying to look for it past a couple weeks down the line. But well, thats the best that they can do. And, for some of the features, the dependancy on toolbar is quite discouraging.
I switched back to Google.
However, take a look at Ask Jeeves. They released a new version today. Without having to download anything, without having to login, you can save a result from your search just by clicking the Save button next to its link. And as this blog says, Ask Jeeves says that you can login, save history and all that, if you are working on a research project or working on a hobby.
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