PALO ALTO, Calif.--Jan. 27, 2005-- A9.com, Inc., a subsidiary of Amazon.com, Inc. (Nasdaq:AMZN), today launched "A9.com Yellow Pages," a new service that helps users find and discover local businesses in a completely new way. The most powerful technology A9.com invented for Yellow Pages is "Block View(TM)," which brings the Yellow Pages to life by showing a street view of millions of businesses and their surroundings. Using trucks equipped with digital cameras, global positioning system (GPS) receivers, and proprietary software and hardware, A9.com drove tens of thousands of miles capturing images and matching them with businesses and the way they look from the street. Block View allows users to see storefronts and virtually walk up and down the streets of currently more than 10 U.S. cities using over 20 million photographs. In addition, A9.com Yellow Pages uses features on Amazon.com that allow users to review, rate, provide more information, create lists, and get recommendations on more than 14 million businesses across the U.S. A9.com Yellow Pages is available now on the A9.com homepage at www.a9.com.

"It took integrated GPS receivers, digital cameras, sophisticated geocoding software and a lot of driving," said Amazon.com Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos. "But 20 million curb-side photographs later, A9.com Yellow Pages lets you see where you are going before you get there."

To find a business, A9.com Yellow Pages users simply type its name or category into the search box on the A9.com homepage, click "go", and select Yellow Pages on the right side of the page. A list of local businesses with an interactive map that shows their locations will appear. Clicking on a business takes users to a comprehensive detail page for the business, which includes the following discovery tools and information:

  • Block View(TM): view photos of the business taken at street level. Users can scroll to the left or right to virtually walk up and down the street to see different photo angles of restaurants, offices and shops. A9.com developed the technology to very efficiently capture photographs of businesses using trucks equipped with digital cameras, global positioning system (GPS) receivers, and proprietary software and hardware. This convenience gives users a better to way to select a business, recognize businesses they have seen in the past, find nearby parking spaces, get a feel of the neighborhood, and much more. With more than 20 million images at launch, Block View currently covers more than 10 U.S. cities and is constantly growing as A9.com adds new images. Block View images are currently available in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Denver, Los Angeles, New York City (Manhattan), Portland (OR), San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, and others.
  • Click-to-Call: call the business with a single click of a button. This technology phones both the user and the business at the same time. Users simply pick up their phone when it rings and will be connected with the business.
  • Free Enhanced Listing: businesses can use A9.com Yellow Pages free of charge to reach existing and prospective customers. Owners and managers can submit virtually any type of information about their business, including photos, hours, payment types accepted, links to their Web site, and anything else that will help them reach prospective customers.
  • Directory Information: find the phone number, address, map, and driving directions.
  • Customer Reviews: see what other customers think of the business. Among the most popular and useful features that help Amazon.com customers make informed purchase decisions can now be used to review local businesses and services. Users can assign a number of stars (scale of 1-5) and write their thoughts on businesses and services, like the best dishes at a restaurant or which stylists are worth the extra wait at a salon.
  • Personalized Recommendations: receive personalized recommendations for business and services. Created through proprietary Amazon.com and A9.com technology, recommendations are based on the locations of the users and the preferences they enter, which means that more recommendations will be provided to users over time.

"Yellow Pages have not changed much in a hundred years," said A9.com CEO Udi Manber. "With our innovative Block View technology, we are bringing them to life."

The launch of A9.com Yellow Pages adds a sixth powerful source of information on www.a9.com which is viewable through convenient selectable and adjustable columns. Results for local businesses are now added to Web and image search provided by Google, book text of hundreds of thousands of titles from Amazon's Search Inside The Book, movie information from the Internet Movie Database (IMDB.com), and reference information (encyclopedia, dictionary, etc.) through Answers.com. A9.com also returns results from the user's individual information, so with every search, users see results from their own history, bookmarks, and diary.

About A9.com

A9.com, Inc., a separately branded and operated subsidiary of Amazon.com, Inc., opened its Palo Alto, California office in October 2003 to research and build innovative search technologies.

About Amazon.com

Amazon.com (Nasdaq:Amazon.com and its affiliates operate seven Web sites: www.amazon.com, www.amazon.co.uk, www.amazon.de, www.amazon.fr, www.amazon.co.jp, www.amazon.ca, and www.joyo.com.

As used herein, "Amazon.com," "we," "our" and similar terms include Amazon.com, Inc., and its subsidiaries, unless the context indicates otherwise.

Forward Looking Statement

This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Actual results may differ significantly from management's expectations. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that include, among others, risks related to potential future losses, significant amount of indebtedness, competition, management of growth, potential fluctuations in operating results, fulfillment center optimization, seasonality, commercial agreements, acquisitions, and strategic transactions, foreign exchange rates, system interruption, international expansion, consumer trends, inventory, limited operating history, government regulation and taxation, fraud, and new business areas. More information about factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com's financial results is included in Amazon.com's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2003, and all subsequent filings.