[Sigia-l] New A9.com service from Amazon (search engine)

[Boniface Lau]

> From: Dave
>
http://news.com.com/Amazon+powers+up+Internet+search+engine/2100-1024_3-
5367133.html?tag=nefd.top

cnet> That A9 continues to rely on Google for its back-end technology
cnet> shows that Amazon's prime interests are innovating in interface
cnet> design and enhancing the consumer experience.  

Unfortunately, A9's interface needs a lot more work in both design and
implementation. 

In the search result page right navigation bar, the search result
category buttons (Web, Books, Images) mix in with the home page tool
buttons (history, bookmarks, and diary) under the same label "Search
Results" and with the same button look. Thus, history appears to be a
search result category, but is in fact a home page tool.

In the case of Netscape 7.01 on Windows, the A9 user interface
implementation is a mess. On the result page, clicking on a search
result category button to hide the category will cause the search
result text and right navigation bar to run into each other.

Search of those categories that are not turned on by default won't
work for users with cookies disabled. For example, let's say you use
FireFox to disable cookies and then visit A9.com. After doing a search
of whatever string, you click on the Books button to see the
Amazon.com result. Then you type a new string into the search box and
hit return for another book search. This time, your result will have
Web and Images categories, but no Books category. That is because
A9.com relies on cookies to maintain the list of active categories.

The search result is counter-intuitive. For example, searching the
movies database with the word blinkx, 

    http://a9.com/blinkx

I got "Blink", "Blink of an Eye", "Blink", "Blink 182: The Urethra
Chronicles", and "Philip Blinko". But there was no blinkx. ISTM the
search engine ignored the "x" in "blinkx".

Note that there is no search category specified in the above A9 URL.
The categories that will be searched depend on the categories used in
the previous search. Thus, one cannot preserve a fully specified
search criteria by saving the corresponding URL. Another thing that
A9.com should support.

A9.com offers advanced search. By clicking on the "Advanced Search"
link, we see the Advanced Search screen. But it has the following
disclaimer:

A9> Note: Advanced Search only effects web and image search results.

IOW, Advanced Search only searches the Web and Images category. Thus,
when you have categories such as Books enabled, the result page from
Advanced Search will have a "Book Results" section saying, "There are
no book results for this query." A9.com has a long way to go in
integration.

IMHO, I found A9.com amateurish.


Boniface