Amazon Dumping Google & Missing Paid Listings – Amazon’s A9 was no longer carrying Google results.

More importantly, this means that Amazon no longer displays Google’s search results, particularly its paid listings.

Google and Amazon partnered in 2003, allowing Amazon to offer Google searches on its site. Google ads were also displayed there.

I’m pretty sure that at one point, the Google logo was on Amazon’s homepage, along with a search box.

Unfortunately, the Internet Archive serves up pages from 2000, regardless of the links I try from the years 2003 through 2005 to check on this.

Anyway, these days, there’s a small A9 Web Search box in the upper right-hand corner of the Amazon site. Until last week, that box returned A9 results powered by Google. Now they are powered by Microsoft’s Windows Live Search.

Few people use A9 — but many more use Amazon. How many did web searches at Amazon? It’s unclear, but in either case, they are no longer seeing the paid listings that Google also used to provide.

In addition, I’m also pretty sure that an ordinary Amazon search (which many people do) used to include Google-paid listings as part of the search results on Amazon. Today, I don’t see these at all. Over at Threadwatch, others report not seeing these either.

MSN syndicates Search to Amazon from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer has more on the new Amazon-Microsoft agreement. The issue of who provides paid listings isn’t covered, but since the Amazon-Google deal wasn’t renewed, I assume these will come from Microsoft.

Amazon’s Search Finds That Microsoft, from The Washington Post, also has some details on the move, including the inspiring answer to whether Amazon felt Microsoft was providing better search results: “It will be up to users to try that out.” So more a business move than a relevancy issue, fair to say 🙂

Udi Manber Leaves A9 to Join Google. Earlier, we covered A9 losing its first CEO, Udi Manber, to Google in February.

Post Excerpts from Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Watch