text: A9.com with Syndicated Search 61
  joeykiller writes "Search Engine Watch reports that Amazon now lets you add your own search to their A9 search engine. Users can opt-in to use additional search engines in addition to A9.com's own when searching. Amazon has chosen to use an extension of RSS 2.0 for this, and hopes that this format will enable search syndication in the same way RSS did for content. Several add-on searches are available already, among them New York Times, Wikipedia and NASA."
  Google ? (Score:1, Interesting)
  Re:Google api? (Score:2, Informative)
  ?
  Re:Google ? (Score:1)
  EPIC 2014 [robinsloan.com]
  Re:Google ? (Score:1)
  Have it your way (Score:5, Insightful)
  I've been using Firefox's configurable search feature for a while (you can add plug-ins for things like IMDB and Dictionary.com, and then select the engine you want before searching.) While it's a great idea in theory, it also is a little more clumsy than you'd normally want. I've ended up doing too many searches for "Linux USB XYZ-123 driver" in Dictionary.com or Wikipedia or whatever, because it doesn't reset itself after each search. After a while, you stop using it - it's just not quite what it needs to be.
  A9 will improve itself with this kind of feature. But, more importantly (like I said, two levels, by adopting this RSS-extension, it will encourage others to do likewise, which means other developers can put together tools for this kind of quick-search without having to learn a hundred different search engine APIs. This means there'll be enough tinkering with UIs for it to be virtually certain someone will come up with something usable.
  At the moment, searching on the Internet's a little like a bunch of 1960s style fast food outle[tt]s. You get your basic cheese burger virtually every where, but it's literally just a bun, a beef burger, and a slice of cheese. A few places are adding pickles (like Google, you might call news the pickle, or groups the tomato ketchup), but we're a long way away from, say, the engines offering delicious Whoppers. If we want to have search engines that give us the full lettuce, mayo, ketchup, onion, tomato, etc, we need to standardize on protocols in much the same way as outfits like MacDonalds and Burger King were able to create efficient food transportation systems for raw ingredients beyond simple buns and beef. This is Amazon giving us the lettuce of Wikipedia and mayo of the NYT to us, asking us if we want the fries of NASA, and it's a step towards them offering "have it your way." Awesome.
  Re:Have it your way (Score:4, Interesting)
  Re:Have it your way (Score:5, Informative)
  Re:Have it your way (Score:1)
  Re:Have it your way (Score:3, Informative)
  It's already possible. Try going to Google.com and rightclicking in the main input box (where you would type your search query) and you should see a "Add a keyword for this search..." menu item.
  If you click this the bookmarks dialog will appear. Add a name (Google) and a keyword (g) and you will be able to search google by typing:
  In your URL bar
  MOD PARENT UP (Score:2)
  That is awesome. Thank you!
  Re:Have it your way (Score:4, Informative)
  Add a bookmark and use the following fields:
  Location:
  Keyword:
  g
  Now, whenever you want to search google just type "g searchterm".
  You can do the same with IMDB, Amazon, Wikipedia, dictionary.com... anything that allows you to use http get to search.
  Re:Have it your way (Score:2). h tml [dwayne.org]
  (There used to be a much better page for this that let you specify your own shortcut keys, and it would generate the
  .reg files dynamically, but I can't find it anymore.)
  Re:Have it your way (Score:1)
  I considered that a feature. It's not that hard to look at the icon and see what engine you're using at the time. I find myself liking that it doesn't reset, as I'll find myself doing a paper and needing Wikipedia a lot, or NIV a lot, or
  Re:Have it your way (Score:2)
  Re:Have it your way (Score:1)
  Interesting Move (Score:4, Interesting)
  However, why do they need to extend RSS? I fail to see what the extensions are for, when all they really need is a XSL transformed RSS document or perhaps an XSL transformed XHTML document with an accompanying or alternative URL to fetch RSS directly.
  Anyway, I like this because hopefully the next move is for the big three to start offering straight XML results; this in addition to or in leiu of the data APIs Google and Yahoo already make available to web authors.
  Thing is, if they just published search results in RSS, then non programmers could jump in the game and start utilizing the data for different applications. It would open up the field considerably, but unfortunately, it would mean a lot more abuse too from search spammers would would seek to capitalize on the data.
  Extending RSS... (Score:4, Informative)
  Read: [a9.com] Besides, they are only extending the RSS 2.0 namespace... something done quite often..
  Re:Extending RSS... (Score:2)
  Re:Extending RSS... (Score:2)
  Re:Extending RSS... (Score:2)
  Re:I just don't undertstand. (Score:1)
  Now, on Google, there's that nice bar of links at the top. I can do one search on the web, then click images if I want to see images, news if I want to see news, etc.
  A9 does try to present too much in its results. It's intrusive and busy. I'm sticking with the g00g.
  Re:I just don't undertstand. (Score:1)
  Re:flexible presentation of other's searches (Score:1)
  minus the spaces, of course.
  hmmm. perhaps I'll clean up the url syntax.
  Also check out IceRocket (Score:3, Informative)
  I use IceRocket for most of my non-technical searches these days, and use Google for technical searches. Nothing beats Google when you know a few rare keywords guaranteed to be on the page you want, but I find its utility has been on the wane for general interest pages.
  Re:Also check out IceRocket (Score:2)
  Using thumbnails of the page is a great visual touch, though.
  Re:Also check out IceRocket (Score:2)
  Also, I turn those page previews off. They're cute, but I don't get any value from them. They just clutter things up. I hit the engines searching for specific content, not a nice layout!
  Always Check Your Examples (Score:2, Insightful)
  Is this actually 'Open' search?? (Score:4, Insightful)
  At the moment, it looks like A9 are keeping these to themselves. So you can make your search engine compatible with A9, but you can't use other people's engines without their OpenSearch document.
  I think A9 should release these documents!
  Re:Is this actually 'Open' search?? (Score:1)
  Coupon/Deal/Bargain Search Engines (Score:5, Insightful)
  First attempts of disruptive innovation? (Score:2, Informative)
  Their added values are going to drop and new entrants will offer new services built upon the commoditized ones.
  The problem is that nobody expects the new services and everybody will recognize them when they appear. It's a hard turn to take for the current rulers.
  Is Amazon starting to shoot itself (and its peers) in the foot?
  Re:First attempts of disruptive innovation? (Score:2)
  Re:First attempts of disruptive innovation? (Score:2)
  Even if they don't get it working, Google or Yahoo! may just run with the idea.
  only reason to use A9 is the amazon discount (Score:2)
  Won't work (Score:2)
  Amazon's OpenSearch or Gene Kan's OpenSearch? (Score:2)
  I liked OpenSearch better the first time, when it was called...OpenSearch [reallysimp...cation.com]!
  Re:Amazon's OpenSearch or Gene Kan's OpenSearch? (Score:2)
  Search Engine Integration (Score:1)
  Google, for example, never indexes everything, but could easily extend it's "More results from " hyperlinks to access my website's own engine, for example
  This would mean search engines index lots of very complete indexes instead of trying to index the entire web from the HTML and only managing to create a partial index.
  Using Open Search to search Library catalogues (Score:1)
  Jon Udell [infoworld.com] has also has written about OpenSearch [infoworld.com].
  CK
  I'm gonna add AFP search to A9! (Score:2)
  Well done AFP! (oh c'mon that was on topic right?)
  very easy to use (Score:2)
  A9's is the easiest yet. You don't have to register for any special account or get permission. You just go to the submission page, give them the URL of your site description, and they validate it (as well as your sample search), giving you a preview.
  The XML itself is a few simple extra tags to your RSS 2.0-compliant feed. If you already have a site search engine