A9, pi, and the integral of e to the x

The Wall Street Journal had another writeup about A9.com, Amazon’s search subsidiary, so I checked it out again yesterday. Today, when I popped over to Amazon.com to look for some books. I’ve long since tuned out any iconery on the top right and left corners, but the change in logo caught my eye after a couple of clicks. Since it was my second favorite mathematical symbol(*), I had to click on it. I hope you’re happy, cross-selling team.

Dude, since you’ve been using A9.com recently, virtually everything at Amazon.com is automatically an additional π/2% (1.57%) off for you. Collecting this discount is zero effort on your part. [...]

We don’t advertise this additional discount that we give in exchange for using A9.com, so if you want your friends to know about it, please tell them. It is probably the only way they’ll find out. [...]

I’ve seen some interesting conspiracy theories on a9.com’s privacy policy, with one author suggesting all sorts of personally identifiable information will be freed when a9 gets bought by a big company. I think this concern is misdirected. Amazon is already a big company.

They will use the information to sell more products on their site, much like they do with IMDB and Alexa. As long as they adhere to their standards — that is, no sharing — that’s not a bad thing. One of Amazon’s biggest charms over Barnes and Noble are the features that help you find things. Last year’s rollout of “Search Inside the Book” was revolutionary. Related products and recommendations have usually been valuable.

It behooves you to read privacy policies (and EULAs), but keep in mind you also have the option of not using said software. For example, I hear google has a good search engine. :-)

* My favorite mathematical symbol: ∫e^x

(The answer is a little less interesting: e^x + c.)