A9 Redesign and Feature Loss

Yesterday, A9 had a major redesign of its site along with a major accompanying loss of features. The A9 announcement notes that they have "redesigned the A9.com website to make it easier and quicker to discover information from more sources." It has more of a Web 2.0 look and feel, and I think they have achieved a more usable site. The databases are grouped together in the left column and are customizable. Searchers can build their own groups from the more than 400 source databases. Each column (one per database) now features continuous scrolling (like the beta of Live search used to offer and the Live Image search database still does).

Unfortunately, along with the new look and interface improvements, several of their best features have disappeared. "We have discontinued the A9 Instant Reward program, and the A9 Toolbar and personalized services such as history, bookmarks, and diary." They also discontinued the A9 Maps and Yellow Pages database including the very nice street-level BlockView. So no more history (one of the best implementations of search histories), no more discount at Amazon.com, and no block-view. This loss begs the question as to whether A9 is still worth using. With its collection of so many OpenSearch databases, I think it still offers value for combining diverse databases on a single screen. Plus, the Books database does a broader match than the same search direct at Amazon.