After months of speculation about what Amazon.com would
do with its mysterious search-engine company, A9, Web
surfers finally got their first taste on Apr. 14.
Yet despite of some intriguing new features not yet found 1. ____
on leading sites such as Google and Yahoo! , the site
(www.a9.com) -- still in test mode -- rises as many questions 2 ____
as it answers.
The biggest question remains is whether Amazon, 3. ____
through A9, would clash into Google more directly. 4. ____
Google itself is testing a search engine for products
called Froogle that’s starting to appeal Web shoppers. 5. ___
At the same time, Amazon clearly isn’t looking to limit A9’s horizons.
How directly A9 eventually goes up against the reigned 6. ____
search champion, it faced lots of challenges. For one, 7. ____
it may run into some of the same privacy issues that
recently have plagued Google. A9’s privacy policy points
out that information provided through entering search term 8. ____
or by signing into one’s Amazon account could supply the company
with information that could personally identify the searcher.
Those may be somewhat less intrusive(打扰的,冒犯的) than 9. ____
Google’s upcoming Gmail free e-mail offering, which could search
the contents of messages to pitch personalized ads. But comments
posted on some sites already indicate some people are
uncomfortable with Google’s potential threats to privacy. 10.____