"Just Another Search Engine" (not) (from tech_pickle)

I read an article about amazon.com's new search site, A9, at the Washington Post. Just thought you should check it out. It's pretty good (enhanced by Google) because it employs various methods of searching the Internet for whatever you want - even searching inside the text of almost every book they have at amazon.

Once a search term is entered, your hits are returned for a web search, but you have more options to choose from. Here's the rundown:

• Web - as expected, web page listings as with any search engine provided by A9.com and Alexa, and enhanced by Google.
• Books - searches for your term in the texts at amazon.com.
• Images - returns a collage of images related (or not) to your search term. It seems about as accurate as AltaVista or Google image search.
• Movies - queries data from the Internet Movie Database, imdb.com. This includes movie titles and descriptions, names of directors/producers/actors, and many other things related to cinema.
• Reference - GuruNet provides quite the bottomless pit of encyclopedic information, and spits it out in every form under this reference section. Very clever, I'd say.
• Yellow Pages - this feature is what got them in the papers. They have sent some poor guys 'round the country to take pictures of businesses to list in the online phone book, and they got trigger-happy. They have taken over 20 million pictures. The listings are tailored to the address you provided when you created your account at amazon.com (assuming you've signed in). I searched for the term 'bonds' and got "Brinson Bonding Agency" in Camilla, GA, and "Bond's Septic Tank Service" in Pelham, to name a couple.
• History - I haven't figured this out yet (maybe it will take longer), but I can search my search history. Little help?
• Bookmarks - since an account is needed to use all of the features of A9, you should get one. They're free, and I trust them with my privacy. You can create bookmarks of pages you've searched and want to save if you are signed in. That way you don't have to try to remember that exact search phrase, or tell a friend on the phone "...it should be the fifteenth listing on the fourth page..." You can just show them.
• Diary - Yep, a diary. Write anything in it that you want. It's there for your notes while surfing the web. All you need is the A9 toolbar.

This is a pretty good reference tool, especially for winning bets. Where else could you find a link to Andrew Johnson's obituary right next to five different listings describing him? I highly encourage the use of this site. Thank you for your time, and please feel free to post a comment or a question. Somebody?

Update: I forgot to mention that one can initiate a search just by typing the search term after "http://a9.com/". For instance, if I wanted to search for the term "salt," I would simply type "http://a9.com/salt" and the results would load instantly, instead of waiting for the page to load to enter a search. Go now, people, and tell your friends about this wonderful information portal. Become smarter.