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Help with A9.com Searches

Web Search

Who provides web search results?
A9.com’s Web Search Results are provided by Alexa Internet. Data provided by A9.com and Alexa Internet is also used for search history and Site Info.
What is Site Info?
The "Site Info" button can be found to the right of the web address listed in your search results and provides additional information about the corresponding website. You can use this information to help you decide if you want to visit the website. You can also use it to discover related sites.
How do I see Site Info?
In most browsers, you will see Site Info appear in a balloon when you place the mouse over the Site Info button. If the Site Info balloon is not displayed, or if you want more information than appears in the balloon, click the Site Info button to be taken to a Site Info page on Amazon.com.
What information do I get from Site Info?
Clicking or hovering over "Site Info" will show you the site's traffic rank (lower numbers are more popular), customer reviews, the average speed of the site, how long the site has been active, and other sites that are related to this site in some way.
Where does Site Info information come from?
Site Info is provided by Alexa Internet, an Amazon.com subsidiary that has been researching the Internet and building tools to help people find out about websites since 1996.
What is a Site Info page?
A page on Alexa.com with basic site information, plus a site summary, reviews, and detailed traffic charts. It includes even more information about sites than available in the balloons.
What does Cached mean?
Clicking on the Cached link will take you to a copy of the page as it looked when the search engine indexed it. This is helpful if the page isn’t available anymore or if the content has changed since it was indexed. Clicking on the Cashed link (to the right of the web address on the search results page) will take you to a copy of the page as it looked when the search engine indexed it.
Can I change the number of web search results I see?
It isn't necessary to specify the number of results, because you can just scroll through all results without having to move to the next page.
Can I specify the language of my web search results?
Yes, you can specify the language of your search results by going to the results section of Preferences which can be found by clicking on "Prefs" in the menu on the top right section of the A9 search page and check the box for the language(s) you want. By default, you will get results from all languages. Note: This will only change the language of web search results. The language of the A9.com website cannot be changed at this time.
How do I get results to open in a new window?
Go to the results section of Preferences which can be found by clicking on "Prefs" in the menu on the top right section of the A9 search page and choose "new window".
How do I prevent mature (adult) content from appearing in my web search results?
You can filter the text results of your search in the Preferences section, which can be found by clicking on "Prefs" in the menu on the top right section of the A9 search page and scrolling down to the "SafeSearch Preferences" and choosing Exclude explicit text and images.

Book Search

Who provides Book Search Results?
Amazon.com provides results from their Search Inside the Book® search feature, giving access to the full text of over 100,000 books.
What information can I see when I look at book results?
Book results will show you the book title, author and publication year for books that include your search term. In some cases you will also see an excerpt of a book that mentions your search term. Clicking on the page number will take you to an image of the book with your search term highlighted. (Please note, you may be asked to give your Amazon account e-mail address and password to access this information.) Clicking on See more references… will take to you a list of all mentions of your search term in the book. Try this search for Hermione Granger for an example.
Why do I have to sign in to Amazon.com when I click on a book result?
It is very important to protect the copyrighted material of publishers and authors who have agreed to participate in this feature. Publishers and Amazon.com require customers to have a valid account and credit card on file in order to view any sample pages inside the books. Only customers without a credit card already on file in their Amazon.com account will be asked to enter it at this point.
Why do I need to enter a credit card number when I click on a book result?
Amazon.com requires credit card information for security purposes only. Amazon.com will not charge your credit card account any fees for using the Search Inside the Book feature.
How can I find out more about Search Inside the Book® feature?
Find out more on the Amazon.com help page.

Reference, Wikipedia, and Weather Search

What is Wikipedia?
Wikipedia is an encyclopedia written collaboratively by many of its readers. Lots of people are constantly improving and changing Wikipedia, making thousands of edits an hour. Anyone can edit it, and no-one—other than the community at large—guarantees its accuracy. Because anyone can edit it, some of the information may be controversial. To learn more, visit wikipedia.org.
Who provides Reference, Wikipedia, and Weather Search Results?
Answers.com provides information on over 750,000 topics. Answers.com has compiled an extensive reference database, leveraging the power of dozens of top encyclopedias, glossaries, and dictionaries.
What information can I see when I look at Reference results?
You'll get snapshot reference information from dictionaries (including definitions, pronunciation keys, and foreign language translations) encyclopedia, thesaurus, geography dictionary, key American historical documents, US Presidents, US Congress, US Supreme Court cases, conversions, abbreviations, Bible dictionary, Old & New Testament, English idioms, wine glossary, music glossary, planetary & astronomy glossary, Marine lingo, articles from Wikipedia, local weather from AccuWeather Weather and many more.

Searching Information Provided by Third-Parties

Who provides search results for third-party columns?
A9.com, via a specification called OpenSearch allows almost anyone with their own search engine to publish their search results to the A9.com website. You can view and add these new search columns to your own search results. Information about each of these columns is provided when you add the column and when you click the About link in the column.

Customizing A9.com

Working with Columns

How do I see different types of information?
A9.com shows each type of information in its own column. This allows you to see results from more than one source at a time, and to have easy access to personal information (bookmarks, history, diary) while reviewing search results. To open and close columns, use the checkboxes at the left of the display. By default, only web and reference results are shown. If you want to show other results, just click the checkbox. Click the checkbox again to hide the column. The columns that you have open are remembered between visits. When you open a search result column, a search is done for your current search term. It may take a moment or two for the contents to update.
Can I change the size of my columns?
Yes. Simply drag the boundaries between the columns either to the left or the right to change the width of the column. Your column arrangement will be remembered when you come back to A9.com. Click close to close a column. Click full to display the current column full-size and close other columns.


Restricting Mature Content

How do I prevent mature (adult) content from appearing in my search results?
Set your SafeSearch Preferences to exclude explicit images and/or text. Note: Even with these settings, it is possible for mature content to be displayed.

Uninstalling the A9 Toolbar

How do I uninstall my A9 Toolbar?
To uninstall the A9 Toolbar, follow the instructions below for your browser:
  • Internet Explorer: Click on the small down arrow by the A9 logo on the toolbar and select Uninstall Toolbar from the drop down menu and follow the instructions on the screen. The toolbar may also be uninstalled using your computer's Add/Remove Programs feature. Open your Windows Start menu, go to Settings, click on Control Panel, and then double click on Add/Remove Programs. Click on A9 Toolbar and then click the remove button. The next time you open a new browser window, the toolbar should be gone.
  • Firefox: The toolbar may be uninstalled using Firefox's Extension Manager pane. Go to Tools/Extensions, select the A9 Toolbar, and click the Uninstall button. The A9 Toolbar will be uninstalled when the browser is restarted.
  • Mozilla: Mozilla does not have a built-in mechanism to uninstall extensions. To uninstall the A9 Toolbar, please see the information at Mozillazine.org.
To ensure that the A9 Toolbar is completely uninstalled, you must make sure that you close all your browser windows and quit and restart your browser.

Privacy

What is A9.com’s Privacy Policy?
The A9.com Website privacy policy is here.