So this is the current change in play - web and news queries made through Alexa, Amazon.com, and soon from A9.com now serve results stamped up and powered by Windows Live Search, the new name for Microsoft's MSN Search service. Windows Live Search is selected by default on www.A9.com, a site that lets users query multiple search services.
Amazon's subsidiary contract was with Google which expired last week - however the decision to add Windows Live Search was apparently a separate development. One could suggest that the incentives and the deal made could have been very attractive to one of the parties, particularly as MSN looks to fight its way out of a corner.
So far Google have failed to comment and casually announced the change on its System blog. Justin Osmer, a senior product manager in the MSN division said:
"It's primarily, for us, an exposure mechanism -- an opportunity to get people using our technology, familiar with our technology, and get that brand awareness out there."
Existing MSN 'exposure channels' include search technology syndicated to InfoSpace - the Dogpile search engine - and to the U.S. government's Web portal, FirstGov.gov.
The next round of rutting - on which I'll bring a full week-long commentary - is the current fracas over MSN Search and the default search engine for the Internet Explorer 7 search box. So for more on that my desk chum and tech team pal Rich Green has some food for thought available to click through to on the left.
Never a punch pulled, or missed, in the search engine wars.
