View source for A9.com

{{Short description|Subsidiary of Amazon based in Palo Alto, California}}
{{Infobox company 
| name = A9.com, Inc. 
| logo = 
| type = Search Engine
| foundation = 
| location = [[Palo Alto]], [[California]]
| key_people = 
| founder = [[Udi Manber]]<ref>{{Cite news |title=Amazon to Take Searches On Web to a New Depth |archive-url=https://archive.today/20210302101606/https://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/15/business/technology/technology-amazon-to-take-searches-on-web-to-a-new.html |archive-date=2 March 2021 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/15/business/technology/technology-amazon-to-take-searches-on-web-to-a-new.html |date=15 Sep 2004 |publisher=[[Ny Times]] |last1=Markoff |first1=John |access-date=18 February 2017 |url-status=live }}</ref>
| industry = Communications
| products =
| revenue =
| image     = Image:ph-landscapes-dec-src-1.jpg
| image_caption = A9.com office in Palo Alto, CA
| num_employees =
| parent = [[Amazon (company)|Amazon]]
}}

'''A9.com''' was a [[subsidiary]] of [[Amazon (company)|Amazon]] that developed [[search engine technology|search engine]] and [[search advertising]] technology. A9 was based in [[Palo Alto, California]], with teams in [[Seattle]], [[Bangalore]], [[Beijing]], [[Dublin]], [[Iași]], [[Munich]] and [[Tokyo]]. A9 had development efforts in areas of product search, cloud search, visual search, augmented reality, advertising technology and community question answering.

==History==

A9, a subsidiary of [[Amazon.com]], was founded in 2003 with an exclusive focus on producing technology for search and advertising. Initially located in the Wells Fargo building on Hamilton Avenue, in 2004 they moved into the building previously used by the [[DEC Systems Research Center]] in [[Palo Alto, California]].  One purpose of A9.com was to leverage [[algorithm]]s, and the name was chosen as a [[numeronym]] to represent that word (i.e. 'A' + 9 other letters). The office was in [[Silicon Valley]], near [[Stanford University]].<ref name="udi04">{{Cite news|title=Can Amazon Unplug Google? |work=Business 2.0 |author=John Battelle |date=April 15, 2004 |url=http://www.business2.com/b2/web/articles/0,17863,611251,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040416090804/http://www.business2.com/b2/web/articles/0%2C17863%2C611251%2C00.html |archive-date=April 16, 2004 |access-date=November 15, 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Under the direction of its first president, [[Udi Manber]], A9 focused on several areas, including the A9.com destination website, a browser toolbar, product search, and a search advertising platform.  Some early A9 services such as "search inside the book" continued, while others have been discontinued. The A9 search engine powered product search for Amazon.com and several other eCommerce retailers.

In February 2006, Manber resigned to move to Google and was replaced by [[David L. Tennenhouse]] as president.<ref name="post">{{cite news |url= https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/08/AR2006020802243.html |title= Google Hires Amazon Executive |date= February 9, 2006 |newspaper= [[The Washington Post]] |access-date= November 20, 2016 }}</ref>  In September 2006, [[Bill Stasior|William Stasior]], one of A9's founders and a former [[AltaVista]] and Amazon.com executive, was named president. In June 2009, A9 acquired SnapTell, which developed smartphone-based visual search applications.<ref>{{Cite web |title= Image Recognition Startup SnapTell Acquired by Amazon Subsidiary A9.com |author= Leena Rao |date= June 16, 2009 |work= Tech Crunch |url= https://techcrunch.com/2009/06/16/image-recognition-startup-snaptell-acquired-by-amazon-subsidiary-a9com/ |access-date= November 15, 2016 }}</ref>

Stasior left in October 2012 to join [[Apple Inc.]] to work on [[Siri]].<ref>{{Cite news |title= Apple Nabs Amazon A9 Exec Stasior to Run Siri — But Does Hire Signal a Bigger Move Into Search? |date= October 15, 2012 |author= Kara Swisher |author-link=Kara Swisher |work= All Things D |url= http://allthingsd.com/20121015/exclusive-apple-hires-amazon-a9s-stasior-to-run-siri-does-hire-signal-a-bigger-move-into-search/ |access-date= November 15, 2016 }}</ref> Brian Pinkerton, who had developed [[WebCrawler]] in the 1990s,  became general manager of A9 in 2012.<ref>{{Cite web |title= Leading Leaders |work= A9 Management web page |url= https://www.a9.com/about-us/management/ |archive-date= November 14, 2016 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20161114072240/https://www.a9.com/about-us/management/ |access-date= November 15, 2016 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title= Search engines we have known ... before Google crushed them |author= Brid-Aine Parnell |date= December 18, 2012 |work= The Register |url= https://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/18/search_engines_we_have_known/?page=3 |access-date= November 17, 2016 }}</ref>

Brian Pinkerton was replace by Srikanth Thirumalai, who left when A9 became Amazon Search.

In 2019, after reporting from ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]'' revealed that Amazon had changed its search algorithm to favor more profitable products, Amazon took down the A9.com site and pointed the domain name to Amazon's home page.<ref>{{cite news |first=Dana |last=Mattioli |title=Amazon Changed Search Algorithm in Ways That Boost Its Own Products |quote=After the Journal's inquiries, Amazon took down its A9 website, which had stood for about a decade and a half. |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazon-changed-search-algorithm-in-ways-that-boost-its-own-products-11568645345 |work=[[The Wall Street Journal]] |date=September 16, 2019 |access-date=September 16, 2019}}</ref>

==Projects==

===A9.com search portal===

A9.com originally operated a [[web portal|search portal]], along with an A9 [[toolbar]], which was first demonstrated on April 14, 2004.<ref>{{Cite web |title= Amazon's Much Discussed a9 Goes Live |date= April 14, 2004 |author= Gary Price |work= Resource Shelf |url= http://www.resourceshelf.com/archives/2004_04_01_resourceshelf_archive.html#108196836452740143 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20040416222616/http://www.resourceshelf.com/archives/2004_04_01_resourceshelf_archive.html#10819683645274014 |archive-date= April 16, 2004 |access-date= November 15, 2016 }}</ref>  The service featured some innovative design elements, allowing users to choose from over 400 sources to search and view results in separate columns grouped by source. In addition to web search results, users could get product search results from Amazon, encyclopedia results from [[Wikipedia]], movie information from [[IMDb]], and others, starting in September 2004.<ref>{{Cite news |title= Amazon to Take Searches On Web to a New Depth |author= John Markoff |author-link= John Markoff |work= New York Times |date= September 15, 2004 |url= https://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/15/business/technology/technology-amazon-to-take-searches-on-web-to-a-new.html |access-date= November 17, 2016  }}</ref> Web search results were provided by different search engines over time.  The search portal functionality was discontinued in 2008.

===OpenSearch===

A9 developed a protocol called [[OpenSearch (specification)|OpenSearch]] that enabled the "plug-in" search source functionality from the A9.com portal.  The original specification, OpenSearch 1.0, was released in March 2005.  A9 made the protocol freely available through a [[Creative Commons]] license.

===BlockView===

A9 developed the first service that allowed users of maps and "[[yellow pages]]" (a [[telephone directory]]) to view buildings at street level.  Called BlockView, the service was announced in January 2005.<ref>{{Cite web |author= Kurt Peters |title= Yellow Pages Go Visual with Block View at Amazon's A9.com |work= Digital Commerce 360 |date= January 27, 2005 |url= https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/2005/01/27/yellow-pages-go-visual-with-block-view-at-amazon-s-a9-com/ |access-date= January 28, 2020 }}</ref>  Within a year, the service included images for 24 US cities.  Both BlockView and maps (as well as support for the A9 tool bar) were discontinued in September 2006.<ref>{{Cite web |title= So Long to A9's Block Level Imagery, Yellow Pages, Tollbar and Amazon.com Discount |work= Resource Shelf |date= October 1, 2006 |url= http://www.resourceshelf.com/2006/10/01/search-briefs-a9-discontinues-many-features-yahoo-to-open-yahoo-mail-api/ |archive-date= October 5, 2006 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20061005033120/http://www.resourceshelf.com/2006/10/01/search-briefs-a9-discontinues-many-features-yahoo-to-open-yahoo-mail-api/ |access-date= November 19, 2016 }}</ref>

===Clickriver===

In November 2006, A9 announced Clickriver, an advertising program that let third parties place advertisements on Amazon.com pages.<ref>{{Cite web |title= Amazon.com's Clickriver Pay-Per-Click Search Advertising |author= Loren Baker |work= Search Engine Journal |date= November 3, 2006 |url= https://www.searchenginejournal.com/amazoncoms-clickriver-ppc-to-bypass-google-adwords/3972/ |access-date= November 15, 2016 }}</ref>
Clickriver focused primarily on products and services that complemented Amazon's own offerings.  For example, if a customer viewed a television on Amazon, a Clickriver ad might offer installation services in his or her local area.  Clickriver was discontinued in 2010, replaced by other Amazon advertising programs.

=== Community question answering ===
A9 operated [[Askville]], a community-based [[question-and-answer site]] first tested in December 2006. Service began in November 2007.<ref>{{Cite news |author= Aarthi Sivaraman |date= November 29, 2007 |publisher= Reuters |title= Amazon Launches Askville.com |url= https://www.reuters.com/article/us-amazon-askville-idUSWNAS341420071129 |access-date= November 15, 2016 |archive-date= August 23, 2014 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140823232215/http://www.reuters.com/article/2007/11/29/us-amazon-askville-idUSWNAS341420071129 |url-status= live }}</ref>  Compared with other question-and-answer sites, Askville focused more on social interaction, allowing users to follow other users as well as track specific topics.
On October 25, 2013, Askville was shut down.<ref>{{Cite web |title= Dear Askville Community |work= Final web site |url= http://www.askville.com/ |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140110015731/http://www.askville.com/ |archive-date= January 10, 2014 |access-date= November 15, 2016 }}</ref>

===CloudSearch===
CloudSearch is a managed [[Amazon Web Services]] service that makes client data searchable.<ref>{{Cite news |author= Timothy Prickett Morgan |title= Amazon Turns A9 Search Engine into a Cloud Service |work= The Register |date=  April 12, 2012 |url= https://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/04/12/amazon_aws_cloudsearch |access-date= November 17, 2016 }}</ref>  For example, a business that wanted to allow customers to search their catalog could upload the catalog entries to CloudSearch and then route search requests from their application or web site to the service.  CloudSearch instances could be brought online as data or traffic volume demanded.  Sites using CloudSearch included [[SmugMug]],<ref>{{Cite web |url= http://news.smugmug.com/2012/04/12/smugmugs-sexy-new-search/ |title= SmugMug's Sexy New Search |work= SmugMug Blog |date= April 12, 2012 |access-date= November 17, 2016 }}</ref> and [[Sage Bionetworks]].<ref>{{cite web|title=On the Shoulders of Giants |date=April 12, 2012 |author=Michael Kellen |work=Science, Reengineered blog |url=http://sciencereengineered.com/2012/04/14/on-the-shoulders-of-giants/ |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120427153704/http://sciencereengineered.com/2012/04/14/on-the-shoulders-of-giants/ |archive-date=April 27, 2012 }}</ref>

In March 2014, Amazon moved away from using A9 for CloudSearch to technology based on [[Apache Solr]].<ref>{{Cite web |title= Amazon CloudSearch - Even Better Searching for Less Than $100/Month |work= Amazon Web Service blog |author= Jeff Barr |date= March 24, 2014  |url= http://aws.typepad.com/aws/2014/03/amazon-cloudsearch-even-better-searching-for-less-than-100month.html }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title= Amazon's CloudSearch gets Solr Powered! |work= Lucidworks blog |date= March 25, 2014 |url= https://lucidworks.com/blog/2014/03/25/amazons-cloudsearch-gets-solr-powered/ }}</ref>

===Product search===
A9 continued to develop and operate the service that provides search on all nine Amazon.com sites, as well as other retail sites owned by Amazon such as [[Endless.com]], Javari.de, and [[Audible.com]].  In addition, A9 search is also used by other retailers, such as [[Marks & Spencer]],<ref>"Marks & Spencer Launches Website in Collaboration with Amazon," ''Computer Weekly,'' March 23, 2007. [http://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240080492/Marks-Spencer-launches-website-in-collaboration-with-Amazon]</ref> that license the Amazon retail platform for their online presence.

A9 provided the "search inside the book" capability for Amazon.<ref>Gary Price, "Amazon Debuts New Book Search Tool," ''Search Engine Watch,'' October 26, 2003 [http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2064555/Amazon-Debuts-New-Book-Search-Tool]</ref> Announced in 2003, this service allows customers to search through the full text of hundreds of thousands of books.  This feature is available both for searching individual books and for the entire book catalog.<ref>{{Cite news |title= Welcome to History 2.0 |work= Newsweek by the Daily Beast |author= Steven Levy |date= November 9, 2003 |url= http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2003/11/09/welcome-to-history-2-0.html |url-status= dead |archive-date= May 6, 2012 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120506145828/http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2003/11/09/welcome-to-history-2-0.html |access-date= November 17, 2016 }}</ref>

===Visual search===

The visual search group at A9 created  mobile applications that recognize objects and allow users to find these products on Amazon.com.  Their first augmented reality app, Flow, provided both object and barcode recognition. It was released in 2011.<ref>{{Cite web |author= Will Shanklin |title= Flow for iPhone is the product ID App We Have Been Waiting For |work= Geek.com |date= November 3, 2011 |url= http://www.geek.com/articles/mobile/flow-for-iphone-is-the-product-id-app-we-have-been-waiting-for-2011113 |access-date= November 17, 2016 |archive-date= January 4, 2012 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120104202854/http://www.geek.com/articles/mobile/flow-for-iphone-is-the-product-id-app-we-have-been-waiting-for-2011113/ |url-status= dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title= Flow iPhone app |work= iTunes |url= https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/flow-powered-by-amazon/id474664425 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20111105115734/http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/flow-powered-by-amazon/id474664425 |url-status= dead |archive-date= November 5, 2011 |access-date= November 17, 2016 }}</ref>

A9 visual search technology powers features to let customers search for certain products (such as shoes) by shape, and find visually similar items on Amazon.com, [[Zappos.com]], Endless.com, and other retail sites.{{Citation needed|date=November 2016}}

===Advertising technology===

A9's advertising technology group began delivering sponsored link advertisements on the Amazon.com retail Web site in 2003 and continued to manage this program for Amazon properties. A9 also invested in display advertising technology, including technology for Amazon's ad-supported e-reader, the [[Amazon Kindle|Kindle]] with special offers.{{Citation needed|date=November 2016}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Amazon}}
{{Web search engines}}

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[[Category:Defunct internet search engines]]
[[Category:Amazon (company)]]
[[Category:Internet properties established in 2004]]
[[Category:Web mapping]]<!-- for BlockView -->
[[Category:Creative Commons-licensed authors]]