INTERNET Service combines searches, selling

AOL is allowing users to check e-mail using other software.
WASHINGTON POST
For a sneak peek at the future of Web searching, click over to A9.com, an unusual service launched last week by a subsidiary of Amazon.com.
A9, still in trial form, combines regular Web results from Google with product search results from Amazon. The site (www.a9.com) sprinkles in a few new tools to let users store, browse and annotate their personal search histories.
When the Seattle retailer announced the creation of Palo Alto, Calif.-based A9.com Inc. last fall, it said it would develop new search technologies that could be used both at Amazon and under license to other companies.
A9 spokeswoman Alison Diboll said it was too soon to predict future uses for the site's search systems. Nor would she speculate on whether A9 would continue to license search results from Google or develop its own Web crawler. "A9 is doing what Amazon has always done -- innovating and improving," she said. "The goal is to produce the best e-commerce search technology and the best customer experience."
Google, Yahoo and other big search companies have been experimenting over the past year with new ways to let people customize their searches; A9 seems to share that goal but adds a focus on online shopping.
How it works
Run a search on A9, and the results come back in three columns. One contains matching Web sites found by Google. The others are a list of related books from Amazon.com, plus a list of recent search terms. That personal search history is designed to help people refine their queries as they drill down on specific topics. The product results include a "search inside the book" feature Amazon introduced last year, letting people see digital images of pages inside books. Google text ads show up at the top of some results pages.
A9 also lets users of Microsoft's Internet Explorer add a new toolbar to their browser windows. This toolbar contains several novel features, including a "diary" button that opens a small box for users to jot notes about a site, which automatically reappear the next time they stop by that site again.
New AOL mail options
America Online subscribers can now use the program of their choice to read their AOL e-mail. The online service is adopting a standard that allows the use of most standard mail applications, such as Eudora, Mozilla, Outlook or Outlook Express, instead of AOL's proprietary software.
The service's new IMAP e-mail server went into "soft launch" earlier this month, with an official launch this week. "It's about choice," said Roy Ben-Yoseph, AOL's director of e-mail products. "It's about giving our members the ability to access their e-mail through any mechanism they choose to, so long as it supports the IMAP standard."
IMAP stands for Internet Message Access Protocol, a standard first developed in the 1980s. Somewhat like AOL's own setup, it's aimed at people who need to check their e-mail from multiple locations.
Subscribers can learn more at AOL keyword "open mail access."