Amazon launches internet search engine

Amazon.com has officially taken the wraps off its internet search engine, joining the contest to unseat number one provider Google.

A9.com, an independent unit of the internet retailer, released a new version of its website late on Tuesday night. The service greatly expands on early features of A9, which launched in test form in April, by turning it into a centralised server to power personalised web search. To this end, A9 lets people navigate, annotate and store web pages they've visited, and like TiVo, will recommend sites based on users' past preferences.

Unlike search rivals, A9 organises query results into expandable columns, displaying web pages, images and reference material adjacent on the page. Its branded toolbar also records users' web browsing history and makes it accessible and searchable to individuals. (Web surfers must register to see their personalised search history.)

"The idea is to take search one level further and organize the information we search for," Udi Manber, A9's chief, said in an interview. "We wanted to build a search engine with memory and help you organise it yourself."

Amazon is lurching forward in the hotly contested search market, where rivals including Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft's MSN, and Ask Jeeves are all vying for a larger portion of the lucrative commercial listings linked to search results. More specifically, shopping search has emerged as prime terrain among the top players because it's often the last word before web surfers find a product or service of choice. Amazon's shifting role in the business highlights the growing importance of search in driving online commerce.

When Amazon first announced A9 in October 2003, questions swirled about the ecommerce company's designs in the marketplace. How will it balance being an objective web search provider while playing host to the largest shopping portal? Those questions still remain.

"It's hard to tell if it's a quiet player who's about to pounce or a silent partner of Amazon," said Jupiter Research analyst Gary Stein.

Under the hood, A9 is powered by technology from Google, Amazon's subsidiary Alexa, reference information from GuruNet and the Internet Movie Database, among other sources. It also displays Google-sponsored ad listings.

Amazon's relationship with Google mirrors one Google forged with Yahoo! during the late 1990s - a relationship of "coopetition," some industry watchers say. Amazon and Google are cooperating within a technology partnership, but they are also competing for web surfers' allegiance.

They're also directly competing in the burgeoning field of book search. Amazon released its "search inside the book" feature last year, which allows people to search within and view excerpts of more than 20,000 books. Google is also testing a service that lets people search the text of books.

That A9 continues to rely on Google for its backend technology shows the company is more interested in innovating in interface design and enhance the consumer experience.

Manber would not say how or if A9 would eventually become a part of Amazon.

He said A9's strength in the search market will centre on Amazon's acumen with consumers. "Amazon is good at concentrating on the customer, spotting the customer and working backward," he said.

Stefanie Olsen writes for CNET News.com