Amazon's search engine loses its way
Last year, Amazon.com's search subsidiary, A9, sent fleets of trucks across the nation to snap pictures of every business in its yellow-pages directory. Taking photographs of 14 million businesses was part of A9's audacious goal to remake the business of search. Amazon has just tacitly admitted failure.
The sidewalk-view photos of businesses are among a few features that have gone missing from a newly slimmed-down A9. Amazon has also discontinued the site's toolbar and, perhaps most significantly, the 1.57% discount it offered A9 users for purchases on Amazon. With those gone, there's little incentive to use A9 regularly and little to differentiate A9 from other search engines. But perhaps cutting down A9's most costly features is a smart business move - after all, traffic to A9 is minimal, and has been growing more slowly than traffic to Amazon.com itself. I never heard of A9 before today. Should have spend money on advertising the search site too.
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