Leading-edge search technology delivers a book-buying experience previously unavailable in the physical or online world

Munich, July 20, 2005 -Amazon.de today announced the launch of Search Inside!, an entirely new way for customers of Amazon.de to find and discover books by searching the full text inside them, not just matches to author or title keywords.

In collaboration with many publishers, Amazon.de is enabling customers to find books at Amazon.de based on every word inside more than 100,000 books - more than 34 million pages of searchable text. Customers can also preview the inside text of these books

"Search Inside! is a completely new way for customers to find and buy exactly the books they want," said Ralf Kleber, managing director of Amazon.de. "Customers value Search Inside and prefer books participating in the program over those that are not participating - for the 12 months after Amazon.com launched Search Inside! in October 2003, sales growth for titles included in Search Inside! outpaced growth for titles not in the programme by seven percent."

"We're giving book lovers the opportunity to discover those books that deal with exactly the topics they are looking for - may it be chapters, pages or singles sentences - 'Search Inside!' finds the places in our books that are relevant to the customer," said Michael Epp, marketing and sales manager of ADAC publishing house. And as Search Inside! not only allows customers to search for certain words but also gives them the opportunity to browse inside every book in the program and look at sample pages, they get a clear picture of the book they are planning to buy.

Through Search Inside!, customers can find, discover and buy titles from more than 120 publishers, including Springer, ADAC Verlag, Verlagsgruppe Beltz, MAIRDUMONT, Galileo Press, Gabler Verlag, O'Reilly Verlag, Patmos Verlagshaus und Verlagsgruppe Oetinger. Search Inside! is integrated into Amazon.de's standard search on the books homepage. Search results are divided into 'standard search results' and 'Search Inside! Results'. "Search Inside!" includes books from all genres.

Here's how it works:

  • Customers interested in anything about the world soccer championship can search for "Weltmeisterschaft" and will automatically see - in a separate search results tab - a list of the many books at Amazon.de that contain this term in the text, in addition to those books that contain the term in the title. Results range from "Wunder von Bern" to Marketing guides in the sports industry to DavidBeckham biography.
  • Books with "Weltmeisterschaft" in the text will display an excerpt including that word or phrase and a link that says "Further references to Weltmeisterschaft in this book". By clicking on this link, customers will see a list of excerpts from all pages on which "Weltmeisterschaft" appears in the book they selected, as well as a link to view the full page from the book on which the excerpt appears.
  • Once customers have clicked on the link to a specific page and signed in with their Amazon.de user name and password, they can preview relevant pages, including the page they selected, and search for other terms of interest within the book.

 

Additional examples include:

  • Those looking to explore the scenic "Petersdom" can search for this term to discover over 150 related titles ranging from quick reference travel guides to culture and architecture books up to children's books.
  • Customers trying to find information about the Austrian speciality "Kaiserschmarrn" will find over 50 titles - books ranging from cook books over Vienna travel guides to French-German gourmet dictionaries.
  • Searching for "online application" provides customers with over 200 books on the subject - everything from how to write an online application to career planning.
  • Marketing experts looking for books on "Scoring" will find over 800 titles that talk about the search word - marketing campaigns, customer relationship building and risk management are just some of the book titles that cover scoring.

 

Customers are encouraged to type words and phrases of interest into the new search box, and enjoy whatever surprises and perfect search matches they might find.

For more information on Amazon.de Search Inside!, log on to www.amazon.de/searchinside.

About Amazon.de
Amazon.de opened its virtual doors in October 1998. Amazon strives to be the world's most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online. Amazon.de and sellers list millions of new and used items in categories such as books, CDs, videos and DVDs as well as products for home and garden, consumer electronics and photos, toys, PC and video games, software and computer supplies. Through Amazon Marketplace, zShops and Auctions, any business or individual can sell virtually anything to Amazon.de's millions of customers. Amazon.de offers its customers payment by invoice, a secure credit card payment option, personalized recommendations, and a time saving ordering process using 1-ClickTM technology. Through Amazon Mobil, Amazon.de is accessible via WAP technology at www.amazon.de/mobil. Austrian customers can access the full range of products via www.amazon.at.

www.amazon.de is one of seven websites operated by Amazon affiliates; the others are www.amazon.com, www.amazon.co.uk, www.amazon.co.jp, www.amazon.fr, www.amazon.ca and www.joyo.com. Amazon.de is the trading name for Amazon.com Int'l Sales, Inc., and Amazon.com International Auctions, Inc., which are both wholly owned subsidiaries of global online retailer Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) located in Seattle, Wash.

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, international expansion, fulfillment center optimization, seasonality, commercial agreements, acquisitions, and strategic transactions, foreign exchange rates, system interruption, 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, 2004, and all subsequent filings.

Für weitere Informationen:

Amazon.de GmbH
Public Relations
Christine Höger
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80809 München
Telefon: 089/35803-233
Telefax: 089/35803-481
E-Mail: choeger@amazon.de