The first line of the news.com article on A9 says that "Amazon.com has quietly launched a test version of its long-awaited search engine" (emphasis mine). Curious. I wonder if news.com felt slighted at the way A9 chose to initially publicize the site, breaking the story via a weblog instead of a traditional media outlet (like, say, news.com) and the "quietly launched" is a displeased rejoinder to the strategy. Judging from the response so far (233 news stories on Google News, A9-related posts hold the top 3 spots on Blogdex, a very active thread on Battelle's site, a post on Slashdot, an article at Search Engine Watch, and it hasn't been 24 hours yet), the launch wasn't that quiet.
...is a weblog about the liberal arts 2.0 edited by Jason Kottke since March 1998 (archives). You can read about me and kottke.org here. If you've got questions, concerns, or interesting links, send them along.