Get ready for another crazy privacy scare like you saw with Gmail. A9 is a search engine system provided by Amazon, which combines Google with a unique system that remembers search paths of its users in order to help direct the best results to you.

Wait! Did he just say it remembers your searches?! Yes. Is that a bad thing? Does that mean that they're Big Brother out to get you? No. Like I've argued about Gmail, I don't see why the company would even want to abuse the information they have. Yes, they theoretically could track every move you make and report that information to terrorists who would then procede to kill you for whatever reason, but that doesn't sound like anything that would happen in the real world. Maybe in a science fiction book.

The truth is, this is something that I've been waiting for for a long time. This approach to search is without a doubt the next great step in dramatically improving relevancy of results, and I'm glad that some company finally had the guts to do it. Although Google didn't get to be first in this, I think that's probably a good thing, given all of the press trouble they've been forced to endure lately. Now Amazon will be the one taking the attacks and Google may get a chance to slip into this new technology more silently.

Things are looking good for search in the near future. I just hope the media doesn't slow it down too much.