A9 (Amazon's search engine) and Alexa (online traffic monitoring service) have replaced Google as default search engine with Windows Live Search. There's no official information about this change, but this is the first major success for the new Windows Live Search, the replacement for MSN Search. A9 search engine powers web search at Amazon.com and IMDB.com.
April 30, 2006
Amazon Drops Google From A9 And Alexa
A9 (Amazon's search engine) and Alexa (online traffic monitoring service) have replaced Google as default search engine with Windows Live Search. There's no official information about this change, but this is the first major success for the new Windows Live Search, the replacement for MSN Search. A9 search engine powers web search at Amazon.com and IMDB.com.
No No M$ Live for me.
ReplyDeletehave you tried microsoft's new search lately? i've been using it for a couple of weeks and its taking over more and more of my searches. It seems about 90% as good as google at this point, compared to 30% as good (6 months ago), IMO.
ReplyDeleteI'd say it has a full 50% of my searches now.
Can't seem to reproduce this yet for A9.com (from Germany). The results explicitly state "by Google." On Alexa I can see it.
ReplyDeleteI rather doubt that anyone uses Alexa to search on the web. Most people use it estimate traffic dynamic.
ReplyDeleteactually Ionut Alex. Chitu, a lot of people use it. these are the poor folks that install stuff without understanding what it is. they end up with things like Alexa and don't have a clue what they are even looking at.
ReplyDeleteYou can call me Ionut if you like.
ReplyDeleteThose who install Alexa Toolbar will probably use the web search option. But nobody goes to alexa.com to search for [bluetooth iPod].
I used A9 for half my search but since they have moved to Live I have stopped using it. Don't want M$ in my life again. They suck.
ReplyDeleteGuess I will stop using Alexa and A9.
ReplyDeleteI've been using msn for search ever since I installed IE7. I have to say, I'm not missing Google one bit. The search is on par with Google results, and the advanced settings for search results and image search are really useful.
ReplyDeleteCould A9's switch to Microsoft have anything to do with the fact the (now former) CEO of A9 jumped ship to Google? You take our CEO and we stop licensing your search engine?
ReplyDeleteGood. We need healthy competition in search services. We've seen the bad effects of monopoly in OSes (though there are some benefits too); we don't need Google to have a monopoly in searches and other internet services.
ReplyDeleteThe key here being "healthy" competition. It always seems that Microsoft competition is anything but healthy. Netscape had a larger market share, now no longer exists, not because it was a poorer browser, but because MS bundled IE.
ReplyDeleteIf I have to choose between monopolies I choose Google.
The key here being "healthy" competition. It always seems that Microsoft competition is anything but healthy. Netscape had a larger market share, now no longer exists, not because it was a poorer browser, but because MS bundled IE.
ReplyDeleteThis is how a monopoly is made -- you think you are stopping Microsoft, but you are actually making Google a monopoly.
Plus, Netscape lost market share not just because Microsoft used dirty tricks but that Netscape 4 sucks, period. People like to tease at IE now, but back at that time, it's light year ahead of Netscape. Yes, I would say that the difference b/w IE 5 and NS 4 is even bigger than the difference b/w IE 6 and Firefox now. Netscape has no one to blame besides itself and AOL.
For the record, netscape was a poorer browser.
ReplyDeletewell more the things change more they remain the same.. Every SW major hates Msoft but tries to be like them. Who does not want its OS running on almost all the PCs in this world, its office product being used so much that almost no competition exists.. if given a choice all these so called "healthy competition" proponents would become msoft.
ReplyDeleteSo at last Google Era has seen some tough competion from none other than Software Major Microsoft. Good to know that Microsoft is now giving some thing for free.
ReplyDeleteM$ is retarding the development of the web by abusing its position as market leader in not complying with web standards. For this reason we should be saddened when M$'s position is strengthened, like when a trusted vendor like Amazon endorses their search engine.
ReplyDeleteM$ must die!
Wow!! Amazon using MSN Live?? That's great!! I like MSN Live. It does a much better job of indexing the newest web pages, soon after they are published, than google does.
ReplyDelete"M$ Must Die"
ReplyDeletedo you realize how big a turnoff that is for the vast majority of us? Some of us would join your open source /google/etc movements, if not for the the overwhelming sentiment so accurately described above. The slashdot crowd is severely limiting the larger movement.
The M$ ethos is profit before all else and this is more abhorrent than any raw slogan. For 20 years I have watched M$ grow by taking someone else's innovation or design and beating them down with a M$ version of the same. Angry utterings like 'M$ must die' could be more eloquently phrased, but I for one understand the frustration that causes such perhaps inappropriate shouts. For the record, nobody is right, everyone is out to profit from what should be public property. It's the dot com era that needs to die!
ReplyDeletea9 was really quite nice when powered by Google. Especially when you could get both search and images side by side, on the same page. Its recent changes are unfortunate, and in my opinion render it useless. I've written to a9 twice to complain, but didn't recieve any comment.
ReplyDelete