Using A9.com…

• Signing In
• A9 Toolbar
• A9 Instant Reward

Search…

• Web Search
• Book Search
• Movie Search (IMDb)
• Reference Search (dictionary, encyclopedia, Wikipedia, Weather, etc.)
• Yellow Pages Search
• Search your own diary, bookmarks, and history

Organize and Customize…

• Your Diary
• Your Bookmarks
• Your Site and Search history (Clearing history)
• Using columns
• Using drag and drop
• Colors and font sizes
• Filtering mature content
• Privacy
• Discover

Using A9.com

Signing In

How do I sign in to A9.com?

When you visit the A9.com homepage, you can sign in by clicking on the "Sign In" option at the top right of the page. Or, you can sign in, or create a new account now by clicking here. Sign in is handled using Amazon.com's services. All sign in information is encrypted using secure servers. You should use the e-mail address and password you use for your Amazon.com account. If you don't have an account, you will be prompted to create one—it only requires your name, e-mail address and password.

What benefits do I get by signing in?

Your experience on A9.com (and with the A9 Toolbar) is greatly enhanced by signing in. When you are signed in you will have access to your history, bookmarks, and diary entries—which reside on our servers rather than the computer where they were added, so you can access them from home, from work, from any computer where you are signed in. You will also get the ability to set layout, color, font, and language preferences.

How do you know my name when I sign in?

A9.com is a wholly owned subsidiary of Amazon.com. We use your Amazon.com account to identify you and share information with Amazon.com to improve the services we offer. If you don't want to be identified, you can sign out at any time by clicking on "Sign Out" on the top-right of the screen, or you can also use generic.a9.com. See the A9.com privacy notice for details.

A9 Toolbar

What is the A9 Toolbar?

The A9 Toolbar helps you surf the web better by putting search, Diary, bookmarks, history, and site info at your fingertips. The Toolbar also includes a pop-up blocker (for Internet Explorer), a search term highlighter, and a List tool that helps you navigate search results and other lists of information easier and better. For more information, and to download the toolbar, visit toolbar.a9.com. For help with the A9 Toolbar, visit A9 Toolbar Help.

A9 Instant Reward

What is the A9 Instant Reward?

You can save an additional 1.57% (^π/₂%) on virtually all your purchases at Amazon.com by simply becoming a regular user of A9.com. Once you join and use A9.com for a few days you will automatically be eligible for the A9 Instant Reward. (click here for more details)

Help with A9.com Searches

Web Search

Who provides web search results?

A9.com’s Web Search Results are provided by Windows Live. Data provided by A9.com and Alexa Internet is also used for search history and Site Info.

What is search history?

Never waste time again trying to find a website you've viewed again! A9 Search History saves you time by keeping track of your searches, search results and the sites you've visited from search results (or, if you have the A9 Toolbar, all sites you visited). If you have not seen a specific website (URL) in your search results before, you will see it marked by [ New ]. If you have seen the result before, and have visited it, you will see when you last visited that site (for example, [ Clicked 1 month ago ] or [ Clicked 2 hours ago ]).

Why do I see [ New ] in front of some of search results?

A search result marked with [ New ] means that you have not seen this specific website as a search result before. This is a very useful feature for queries that you repeat periodically—it automatically highlights the new results for those queries.

Why do I see [ Clicked 2 hours ago ] or something similar in front of some search results?

The information in the brackets tells you when you last visited a specific site based on your A9.com's search history.

What is Site Info?

The "Site Info" button can be found to the right of the web address listed in your search results and provides additional information about the corresponding website. You can use this information to help you decide if you want to visit the website. You can also use it to discover related sites.

How do I see Site Info?

In most browsers, you will see Site Info appear in a balloon when you place the mouse over the Site Info button. If the Site Info balloon is not displayed, or if you want more information than appears in the balloon, click the Site Info button to be taken to a Site Info page on Amazon.com.

What information do I get from Site Info?

Clicking or hovering over "Site Info" will show you the site's traffic rank (lower numbers are more popular), customer reviews, the average speed of the site, how long the site has been active, and other sites that are related to this site in some way.

Where does Site Info information come from?

Site Info is provided by Alexa Internet, an Amazon.com subsidiary that has been researching the Internet and building tools to help people find out about websites since 1996.

What is a Site Info page?

A page on Amazon.com with basic site information, plus a site summary, reviews, and detailed traffic charts. It includes even more information about sites than available in the balloons.

How can I save my searches?

You can save your searches by signing in to A9.com. When you are signed in, your searches are automatically saved.

I like one of my search results. How do I bookmark it?

To bookmark a search result, hover your mouse over the site name and drag it to your bookmark column. If the bookmarks column isn't open, just drag it to the Bookmarks checkbox above and it will automatically be saved at the top of the list. Please note: Drag and drop must be enabled in order to perform this action. You can enable drag and drop by opening the bookmarks column (you can open the column by checking the box next to "your bookmarks") and clicking on "turn on" at the bottom of the column.

How else can I customize search results?

Try our Advanced Search feature. You can use this feature by clicking on the "Advanced Web Search" below the search box on the main A9.com site.

What does Cached mean?

Clicking on the Cached link will take you to a copy of the page as it looked when the search engine indexed it. This is helpful if the page isn’t available anymore or if the content has changed since it was indexed. Clicking on the Cashed link (to the right of the web address on the search results page) will take you to a copy of the page as it looked when the search engine indexed it.

Can I change the number of web search results I see?

No, not at this time.

Can I specify the language of my web search results?

Yes, you can specify the language of your search results by going to the results section of Preferences which can be found by clicking on "Prefs" in the menu on the top right section of the A9 search page and check the box for the language(s) you want. By default, you will get results from all languages. Note: This will only change the language of web search results. The language of the A9.com website cannot be changed at this time.

How do I get results to open in a new window?

Go to the results section of Preferences which can be found by clicking on "Prefs" in the menu on the top right section of the A9 search page and choose "new window".

How do I prevent mature (adult) content from appearing in my web search results?

You can filter the text results of your search in the Preferences section, which can be found by clicking on "Prefs" in the menu on the top right section of the A9 search page and scrolling down to the "SafeSearch Preferences" and choosing Strict.

Book Search

Who provides Book Search Results?

Amazon.com provides results from their Search Inside the Book® search feature, giving access to the full text of over 100,000 books.

What information can I see when I look at book results?

Book results will show you the book title, author and publication year for books that include your search term. In some cases you will also see an excerpt of a book that mentions your search term. Clicking on the page number will take you to an image of the book with your search term highlighted. (Please note, you may be asked to give your Amazon account e-mail address and password to access this information.) Clicking on See more references… will take to you a list of all mentions of your search term in the book. Try this search for Hermione Granger for an example.

Why do I have to sign in to Amazon.com when I click on a book result?

It is very important to protect the copyrighted material of publishers and authors who have agreed to participate in this feature. Publishers and Amazon.com require customers to have a valid account and credit card on file in order to view any sample pages inside the books. Only customers without a credit card already on file in their Amazon.com account will be asked to enter it at this point.

Why do I need to enter a credit card number when I click on a book result?

Amazon.com requires credit card information for security purposes only. Amazon.com will not charge your credit card account any fees for using the Search Inside the Book feature.

How can I find out more about Search Inside the Book® feature?

Find out more on the Amazon.com help page.

Movie Search

Who provides Movie Search Results?

The Internet Movie Database—the worlds largest source of information about actors, movies, and the people who make them—provides our movie search results. With information on over 400,000 titles and 1.5 million people, IMDb is a comprehensive source of movie information.

What information can I see when I look at movie results?

Searching for an actor will give you a biography, filmography, photographs, some trivia, and links to more information (try a search for Clark Gable). Searching for a movie title will give you a movie summary, cast and crew, posters & production stills, trivia, and links to more info (try a search for Gone With the Wind). Clicking on an item under the heading "Also See" will do another search on A9.com for that term.

Why do I sometimes see another A9.com search result when I click on a result in the Movie column?

When there is more than one possible result for your search, the first thing that you will see is a list of all possible results. Clicking on one of them will give you the detailed information about the person or movie you are interested in. For example, try searching for Star Wars.

Reference, Wikipedia, and Weather Search

What is Wikipedia?

Wikipedia is an encyclopedia written collaboratively by many of its readers. Lots of people are constantly improving and changing Wikipedia, making thousands of edits an hour. Anyone can edit it, and no-one—other than the community at large—guarantees its accuracy. Because anyone can edit it, some of the information may be controversial. To learn more, visit wikipedia.org.

Who provides Reference, Wikipedia, and Weather Search Results?

Answers.com provides information on over 750,000 topics. Answers.com has compiled an extensive reference database, leveraging the power of dozens of top encyclopedias, glossaries, and dictionaries.

What information can I see when I look at Reference results?

You'll get snapshot reference information from dictionaries (including definitions, pronunciation keys, and foreign language translations) encyclopedia, thesaurus, geography dictionary, key American historical documents, US Presidents, US Congress, US Supreme Court cases, conversions, abbreviations, Bible dictionary, Old & New Testament, English idioms, wine glossary, music glossary, planetary & astronomy glossary, Marine lingo, articles from Wikipedia, local weather from AccuWeather Weather and many more.

Yellow Pages Search

How is A9 Yellow Pages different from other online Yellow Pages?

In addition the regular features you expect to see in an online Yellow Pages—addresses, maps, phone numbers, categories, search—A9.com provides several unique features. The most interesting one is Block View™ which lets you see millions of images of businesses taken from the street and even allows you to virtually walk up and down the street (Read more about Block View). Another convenient feature is our "Click to Call the Business" button, which will automatically place a phone call between you and the business. More features are described below.

What information can I see when I look at the A9 Yellow Pages results?

You see a map and listing of businesses sorted in the order of distance from the given location. If you do not specify an exact address, we take the center of the zip code (if it's given) or the center of town. You can hide the map and bring it back quickly (without reloading the page) by clicking on the appropriate links.

How do you know my location?

If you are logged in to A9.com, we base your location on address information that you provided to Amazon.com (i.e. shipping addresses). If you are not logged in, we base your location on the internet (IP) address of your computer. Once you have searched a location, we will remember that and use it for subsequent searches. If you click on the little down arrow on the right side of the location box, it will give you the list of all recent locations you used as well as locations you specifically saved.

How can I save a location?

Click on the "Manage Locations" link next to the location box.

How do I update business information?

Every business page includes a link for customers to send us information about that business (e.g., images). Owners of the business can fill a detailed form (most of which is optional) with additional information (e.g., opening hours, credit cards accepted, special deals) (More about updating information).

Is there a charge to the business owners for including additional information?

No. It is a free service.

What are some of the other features of A9 Yellow Pages?

The search result window can be moved to the left or right by dragging its borders. If there is enough space, the map and listings will be shown side by side. For each listing, we show the distance from the given location and if we have a picture of the block we show a small thumbnail.

Filter results by distance: The default is to search within a 5 mile radius of the given location (unless there are no results, in which case the radius is extended automatically for that query). You can change the radius by selecting radio buttons in the "Within Distance" box.

Show results on a map: For each search, we present a map (scaled automatically) with numbered buttons corresponding to the businesses found in that search. (Some addresses cannot be parsed correctly and are not shown.) When you place your mouse over the map, the corresponding business will be highlighted and vice versa. You can click on the map buttons to go directly to the corresponding business page.

Matching categories: Search results also returns all categories that match the search. We show the top ones above the results, and provide a link to see all matching categories.

Block View: A9.com developed new technology to very efficiently capture photographs of businesses using trucks equipped with digital cameras, global positioning system (GPS) receivers, and proprietary software and hardware. Because the data is not yet 100% precise, not all images exactly show the business. You can virtually "walk up and down the street" by using either the left and right arrows above the images or the double arrows on the right and left sides of the image "strips" below. (Note: the maps currently are not changed dynamically together with the images, they stay fixed.) If you place your mouse over any of the thumbnails in the strip of images, the larger image changes. Double clicking on the large or smaller images brings a new window with an even larger image. The selection boxes below the strip is provided for your feedback to find the best image of the business. Please use it and help us improve this feature. (You will be asked to sign in.) The images are provided to help you select a business, to recognize businesses you have seen in the past, to find nearby parking spaces, to get a feel of the neighborhood, and so on. Block View currently covers more than 10 U.S. cities (Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Denver, Los Angeles, New York City (Manhattan), Portland (Oregon), San Francisco, and Seattle among others), and more are added all the time.

Other businesses along the same street: We provide a list of businesses (and links to them) that are close to the current business. Both sides of the street are included. (Note: these lists currently are not changed dynamically together with the images, they stay fixed.)

Free enhanced listing: Businesses can use A9 Yellow Pages free of charge to reach existing and prospective customers. Owners and managers can submit information about their business, including photos, hours, payment types accepted, Web site URL, and anything else that will help them reach prospective customers.

Interactive maps and driving directions: On every business detail page there is a link, below the map, that brings an interactive map plus a form for driving direction to that business.

Searching Information Provided by Third-Parties

Who provides search results for third-party columns?

A9.com, via a specification called OpenSearch allows almost anyone with their own search engine to publish their search results to the A9.com website. You can view and add these new search columns to your own search results. Information about each of these columns is provided when you add the column and when you click the About link in the column.

Searching Your Own Information

Who provides search results for your own information (History, Diary, and Bookmarks)?

Your personal search results recorded in your History, Diary and Bookmarks are provided by A9.com for your own information. Your personal information is not shared with third parties. See our privacy policy for more information.

What information can I see when I look at my own information?

When you do any search, A9.com also searches your own information. We provide results that match your query from your history, diary, and bookmarks. See the following questions for more information.

When I search my diary, what do I see?

You will see all diary entries where the search term appears in the content, title, or URL of your diary entry. Below the search results, if any, you will see your diary entries, so you can use this window in two ways at the same time: as search results and as the usual list of diary entries. Click Edit to see all your diary entries. [More about diary]

When I search my bookmarks, what do I see?

You will see all bookmarks where the search term appears in either the title or URL of your bookmark. Below the search results, if any, you will see the full list of all your bookmarks, so you can use this window in two ways at the same time: as search results and as the usual list of bookmarks. [More about bookmarks]

When I search my history, what do I see?

You will see all websites where the search term appears in either the title or URL of your history item. This lets you quickly see the names and URLs of sites that you have previously visited, along with an indication of when you last visited the site. Below the search results, if any, you will see the full list of all your search or site history items, so you can use this window in two ways at the same time: as search results and as the usual list of search or site history items. [More about history]

I see stuff that I don’t want to when I search my own information. How do I get rid of it?

To delete a diary entry, click Edit in the diary column or on diary.a9.com and click Remove Diary Entry. Alternatively, you can use the A9 Toolbar and go to the site, and use the Remove Diary Entry item in the Diary menu.
To delete a bookmark, click Edit, select the bookmark, and click Remove.
To delete an item from your history, click Edit, select the checkmark next to the item you want to remove, and click Clear Selected.

Help with Your Information

Diary

What is the A9 Diary?

The A9 Diary is a feature that allows you to easily take notes on any web page you view. You can see the notes whenever you visit that page from any computer that you use. You can also find your diary notes through search or through a list of all you diary entries maintained at diary.a9.com

How do I use the Diary?

To use the Diary, you need the A9 Toolbar. Once you have the A9 Toolbar, just click the Diary button on the toolbar. The Diary bar will open and will be ready for your entries. Notice that there isn’t a save button anywhere. You don’t need one! Your entries are automatically saved whenever you stop typing or when you go to another page. You can close the text area by clicking on the diary button again.

How do I see my diary entries?

To see your entry, just go back to the webpage were you added the entry. The diary bar will automatically open, and the diary entry you left for that page will be shown. If you don’t remember the specific page you made a note on, you can search them on A9.com (use regular search and open the diary column). A list of all your diary entries is available at diary.a9.com, as well as the diary columns on the A9 home page and on search results.

How do I edit my diary entries?

You can edit a diary entry by going to the entry with the A9 Toolbar. If you’ve also bookmarked a page with a diary entry, you will see and can edit your diary entry when you edit your bookmarks.

I’m signed in. Why can’t I see my Diary entries with the toolbar?

If history is off, then diary is also turned off. The diary needs to send information about where you are browsing to our servers, so the diary will automatically turn off if you have turned History off. The diary is also off on secure (https) sites as well as on local (file) and ftp sites. You can always see all your diary entries (if you are signed in) by going to diary.a9.com.

I’m signed in and history is turned on. Why don’t I don’t see a diary entry that I made?

In order to automatically bring up a diary entry the A9 Toolbar has to determine if you are on the same page as the one you made the entry on. It tries to do this in two ways. First it looks for an exact match in the full URL of the page (e.g. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0586062009/ref=a9_qa_1/002-3807830-0106456). This matching may fail—usually because the URL can contain information that changes each time that you visit the page (such as session ids, pointers from previous pages, etc.). If the A9 Toolbar can’t get an exact match on the URL, it then tries to match the page title with other diary entries on the same domain (e.g. www.amazon.com). If the A9 Toolbar finds either a URL or title match, it will display the diary entry.

How do I remove a diary entry?

To delete a diary entry, click Edit and click Remove Diary Entry. Alternatively, you can use the A9 Toolbar and go to the site, and use the Remove Diary Entry item in the Diary menu. Deleting a bookmark with an associate diary entry WILL NOT delete the associated diary entry.

Bookmarks

What are bookmarks?

Bookmarks are the same as the browser’s favorites, with one big difference—they reside on our servers rather than the computer where they were added; This means that you can access them from home, from work, from any computer where you are signed in. No need to synchronize or remember where you saw a particular site. We also made it easy to manage and work with the bookmarks.

Do I need the A9 Toolbar to add bookmarks?

No, but it is highly recommended. Although you can add bookmarks from both the A9 Toolbar or from the A9.com website, it is much easier and more convenient to add the a bookmark to a site you are visiting directly through the toolbar rather than having to go to A9.com.

How do I add bookmarks from the A9.com website?

If you have drag and drop enabled, you can use drag and drop to easily add links from most any column to your bookmarks. Just click on the link, and drag it to either the bookmarks column or the bookmarks checkbox (at the top of your screen) or button (on the right hand side of your screen). You can also rearrange bookmarks in this column by dragging them around. If drag and drop is disabled, you can enable it at the bottom of the bookmarks column.
You can also click on Edit in the bookmarks column to manually add a bookmark.

How do I add bookmarks from the A9 Toolbar?

Go to the site that you want to add, and select Add to Bookmarks from the A9 Toolbar Bookmarks menu. You will see a dialog box where you can edit the Title or URL of the site you are adding, or you can create a new bookmarks folder.

Can I import my existing Internet Explorer bookmarks?

Yes, with the A9 Toolbar. Just select Import Bookmarks from the Bookmarks menu. All of your Internet Explorer website bookmarks are added (we do not remove duplicates). If you have bookmarks to local files, they are not added.

How do I edit my bookmarks?

On the website, click on Edit in the bookmarks column (or select Edit Bookmarks in the A9 Toolbar Bookmarks menu). You will see your bookmarks on the left hand side. Select a bookmark (or a bookmark folder) and you will be able to edit it on the right hand side. Click here to go to the Edit Bookmarks page.

What can I change on the Edit Bookmarks page?

You can change the URL, Title, or Diary entry for a bookmark. You can also change the name of a folder.

How do I rearrange my bookmarks?

The easiest way to rearrange bookmarks is by dragging them around. If you want to put a bookmark into a folder, just hold the bookmark over the closed folder, and it will automatically open for you. You can also use the Move up and Move down buttons on the right side.

What does Show Page button do?

Show Page will open the selected bookmark in a new window so you can see the site that was bookmarked without having to leave the Edit Bookmarks page.

History

What is History?

All your searches at A9.com are stored on our servers and can be shown to you (and only you!) at any time from any computer. If you have the A9 Toolbar, all sites you browse to (except secure sites) and searches you do on Amazon.com and other search engines and e-commerce sites go into your history.

What can I do with my history?

Clicking on a link performs the search again. Clicking on a site goes to that site. Your history is used to show you when you last visited a site ([ Clicked 1 month ago ]) or show you when a search result is new ([ New ]).

How do I get rid of sites or searches in my history?

To clear one or more items, click the Edit button in the bottom right of a history column (either on the A9.com homepage or a search results page) to go to the Edit History page. You will see a list of your recent history, along with folders (organized by date) containing previous history events. To delete an item, just check the checkbox and click Clear Selected. You can also click the Check All box to select all items currently displayed.

Can I clear my whole history?

Yes, you can also clear ALL items in your search or site history. Go to the Edit History page, and click the Clear All History button at the bottom of the page. You will be asked to confirm that you want to clear your entire history. Once you confirm you cannot retrieve any history items that have been cleared.

I have the A9 Toolbar. How do I prevent sites I visit from going into my history?

Select Turn History Off in the History menu to temporarily prevent sites from being added to your history.

How do I prevent searches from going into my history on the A9.com website?

You can use our service located at generic.a9.com (learn more).

Does the A9 Toolbar record history of all sites that I visit?

The A9 Toolbar does not record visits to the following types of sites: Secure sites (ones where the URL begins https://), ftp sites, and documents opened from your local network or computer (those that begin file://).

This is my first visit to A9.com. Why do I already have a search history?

A9.com powers the web search on Amazon.com, so any web searches that you performed on Amazon.com will be reflected in your A9.com history.

Discover

What happened to the Discover feature?

Discover was a feature that we launched as a beta (test) service to help users find new and interesting websites. We have decided to discontinue this feature in its present form. We may launch a new Discover feature in the future. In the meantime, you are encouraged to explore Alexa Internet's Movers & Shakers feature to find interesting websites.

Customizing A9.com

Working with Columns

How do I see different types of information?

A9.com shows each type of information in its own column. This allows you to see results from more than one source at a time, and to have easy access to personal information (bookmarks, history, diary) while reviewing search results. To open and close columns, use the checkboxes at the top or bottom of the display. (If you have set the appropriate Preference, there will be buttons on the right side of the display instead.) By default, only web and reference results are shown. If you want to show other results, just click the checkbox. Click the checkbox again to hide the column. The columns that you have open are remembered between visits. When you open a search result column, a search is done for your current search term. It may take a moment or two for the contents to update.

Can I change the size of my columns?

Yes. Simply drag the boundaries between the columns either to the left or the right to change the width of the column. Your column arrangement will be remembered when you come back to A9.com. Click close to close a column. Click full to display the current column full-size and close other columns.

Using Drag and Drop

What can I drag and drop?

You can drag and drop items from your search history to the bookmarks column on the A9.com home page. To do this you must enable drag and drop on the search results page. If you enable drag and drop you can drag any search result (other than sponsored links) to your bookmarks column. On either page you can drag and drop bookmarks to rearrange their order.

How do I enable or disable drag and drop on the search results page?

You can enable drag and drop at the bottom of the bookmarks column or on the Preferences page.

I want to drag a link to my desktop or another browser. How do I disable drag and drop on the A9.com site?

You can disable drag and drop permanently for search results, on the Preferences page. You can disable A9 drag and drop temporarily (in order to drag a link to your desktop or another application) by holding down the shift key while dragging an item.

Preferences

How do I change colors or font sizes?

Go to the A9.com Preferences Page. There you can select one of six color themes (skins) as well as set your preferred font size.

Restricting Mature Content

How do I prevent mature (adult) content from appearing in my search results?

Set your SafeSearch Preferences to Moderate or Strict. Note: Even with these settings, it is possible for mature content to be displayed.

Privacy

What is A9.com’s Privacy Policy?

The A9.com website and A9 Toolbar privacy policy is here.

What is generic.a9.com?

If you would prefer not to be recognized on our site, we recommend that you use our alternate service located at generic.a9.com. On generic.a9.com, we will not recognize your A9.com or Amazon.com cookie. Information we gather on generic.a9.com will not be used in our data analysis (other than to detect abuse) and will not be used to personalize the services we offer you.