a9 drops Google for Windows Live, shafts users
I’m removing a9 (amazon’s column-based search front end) from my list of recommended software today. Without any announcement to their users, they’ve switched the “Google” web search to “Windows Live”. To understand why this is bad deal, you don’t have to be of the opinion that Google’s search results are better (they are). All you have to do is understand the direction that a9 seemed to be headed in, and how they’ve strayed from that promising path.
a9 worked through the idea of “opensearch” allowing for lots of columns that accessed different search engines. Now, rather than adding Windows Live as a new level of flexibility, they’ve shoved Windows Live down all users throats as the “default web search”, adding no options to still use google as an alternative, and lost other useful columns, like Google Images.
I haven’t dropped a9 completely yet. I’m hoping they haven’t hooked themselves into a restrictive deal with Windows Live, and that they’ll provide renewed functionality (including Google options) soon.
