A9 Search Engine Launches Yellow Pages

vmalik writes "The A9 search engine has launched a Yellow Pages service, and the listings in major cities include photographs of the storefronts. The site also contains information on how they did it. It seems to be pretty good with lots of store images and driving information from MapQuest."

Comments

Current?

[KontinMonet]

Cool idea, and keeping this up-to-date will be a nice little earner for someone. Presumably, photographed stores will tell A9 when things have changed... or will there be a two year delay?

Re:Current?

[Anonymous Coward]

I just updated information for the company that I work for. What is really odd is it lets ANYBODY change ANYTHING. In something obscure enough you could probably enter information about your competitor which would make anyone informed know that they suck. So, that's sort of a minus. I don't know if they're going to check the info I updated or what.

Their interface did not give me a chance to upload a picture. You can only "share a picture" if you're a customer. Being I'm an Amazon customer, I reviewed the business as 5 stars but will not shill it out by writing a review.

Concerns/Observations

[Enigma_Man]

I was taking a virtual drive around Boston, and could clearly see many people's faces. Do those people know that they're photographed, and on the internet for all to see?

Otherwise, very interesting. Some of the storefronts for businesses I know of were one or two pictures off to the left or right though, guess they're still working out the bugs.

-Jesse

Re:Concerns/Observations

[gatekeep]

I noticed this too.

For anyone who needs an example, search for 'sears' with zip code 60641. You'll get a picture of a store called 'Hats Plus' with only the edge of the sears store visible in the leftmost photo.

Now search for 'hats plus' and you'll get an imagine even further east along the same strip mall. You can verify they're next door by comparing the rightmost pics of the first search to the leftmost pics of the second search. Looks like the whole thing is about 50-100 feet off in that area.

Now, why is this? Probably because GPS is not 100% accurate. Even at it's best, consumer grade GPS (I'm going to assume A9 doesn't have access to military level equipment) is only accurate to about 20-30 feet. That also requires a relatively solid signal. In many areas, especially with large buildings, trees, and other obstructions, accuracy can drop to 100 feet or so. At this level of accuracy, you don't always see pictures of the business you're looking for, just the surrounding area.

It's a cool idea, but unless/until more accurate GPS gear is available it won't be much more reliable than following mapquest directions and looking for the nearest interesection.

This is an awesome idea, but...

[justinstreufert]

It looks like they kind of botched it. I'm not surprised, given the lag and inaccuracy of GPS in an urban environment (tall buildings = imperfect coverage) and the overall insanity of the whole project.

Basically I searched for some things in New York, and got some cool images. Not once was I looking at the actual storefront I asked for. Once, I was able to find the store by moving left two images down the block (a neat feature) but the next time I searched, I was not even on the same block with the restaurant I was looking for. Next search, there was a giant truck in front of the store I wanted. Woo!

It is really entertaining to walk up and down the block and take a look at all the poor slobs who A9 caught scratching themselves on some streetcorner. I wonder when we can count on the first lawsuit?

Justin

Re:It freaked me out!

[Enigma_Man]

When I RTFA'd, they mentioned that if they don't have any direct info about you, they'll use an IP->ZIP translator/database to guess where you are. They were a couple towns over from where I am.

-Jesse

Current and ACCURATE?

[sterno]

So I decided to play with it for a moment and see how cool it was. I did a search for a couple restaurants and shops nearby. It didn't have a listing for any of them, with or without photo. So I decided to search for something obvious: Dave and Busters.

The entry came up with a photo and everything, but the photo was wrong. They had the right block but they were off by about half a block. Impressive technological feat to be within half a block, but it makes the technology totally useless.

In the case of D&B, if you scan up the street you can see the big orange and blue awning and find it. But then I knew the street and so knew which direction to scroll when I saw that they were off. So now they combine the sometimes humorous inaccuracy of on-line maps with a new level of inaccuracy using street level photos.

You may be better off asking for directions from a real person :)

Re:nobody uses A9

[numbsafari]

I don't own any and I agree with him.

User's should be able to make an informed decision about what they are willing to give up in exchange for valuable service. Some of that might be privacy.

The real thing to fear is what happens if Amazon.com were to violate the provisions contained within its privacy agreement or if it were to attempt to distort or hide the nature of that agreement or in some other way not properly acquire informed consent from the user. For that, user's have the court system at their disposal for adjudication under the contractual obligations set out within the privacy policy and the legal system under which the privacy policy is executed.

It's in Amazon's best interest to protect consumer data for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that the consumer data they hold has value. Outside of that, if they prove to be a less than trustworthy vendor people will avoid using the service.

I'm glad the company I work for employs a firewall admin who believes in freedom of choice and personal responsibility. If A9 were a security threat for the company then I could understand blocking it. But, please, that's a stretch that goes beyond reason.

Personally, I'd consider the admin who blocks a site like A9 more of a privacy threat than A9.