Resources - Amazon adds syndicated search to A9.com. Users of A9.com can now access a federated search feature that has the potential to give it 'supersearch' status, says Bobby Pickering.

Amazon has announced a content syndication service that will allow users to create their own federated search environment.

A9.com's OpenSearch service brings together content suppliers as diverse as the British Library, PubMed and the New York Times in a single search interface - more powerful than many library portals.

Amazon's A9.com search site allows registered users to personalise their interface, build up a customisable display of relevant search "columns" and maintain a history of previous searches.

Announcing the new features at the O'Reilly Emerging Technology conference in San Diego last month, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said: "We want OpenSearch to do for search what RSS has done for content."

On the home page, you use a menu of buttons on the right to toggle on and off four adjustable views, or "columns". Two options provide records of your searching: Your History allows quick recall of previous searches, and Your Bookmarks give quick access to websites with links created using the downloadable A9 toolbar.

The interface also has user customisation features that will help give A9.com an edge. A "Your diary" feature lets users associate notes with websites, while a beta version of a feature called "Discover" allows access to alerts based on the searches already carried out. Change the widths of each column by placing your cursor on the column divide and dragging it to the desired width.

When results of a search are displayed (see above) then the real power of A9 starts to emerge. Once again, use the right-hand buttons to toggle on and off different views - web search, web image search, book text search from Amazon, a search of movies from Internet Movie ...