Amazon Finds That Driving Around The World Taking Pictures Every Few Feet Isn't Worth it

from the think-of-the-gas-bill dept

Mon, Oct 2nd 2006 4:24pm — Joseph Weisenthal

Amazon hasn't gotten very far in its stab at the search industry. Just about the only thing that A9 is known for is its attempt to combine local search and on-the-ground pictures. But driving around to collect pictures is an expensive process, and so far, it's Google's simple maps that have become the standard for visually representing local search. So it's no surprise that A9 is eliminating the picture feature, as it probably realized that the cost of continuing the process wasn't worth it for the amount of use the service was getting. That doesn't mean that the idea isn't worth pursuing. The popularity of Google Earth and other satellite imaging services suggests a demand for having pictures of a location. But more than likely, the solution to this problem will be of the (warning: buzzword coming) crowdsourced variety, as users submit their own pictures to be matched up with a location. Yahoo's Flickr allows users to upload photos associated with a specific location. As for A9, it recently lost some top talent to Google, and is stuck as the 32nd (who are the 31 in front of them?) most popular search engine, so throwing in the towel on the picture project may be a signal that the company realizes it doesn't have much to bring to search.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

10 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

sarcasm addict, 2 Oct 2006 @ 4:38pm

Feat of Grammar
wow the headline quality at techdirt is nearing digg level
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Joe, 2 Oct 2006 @ 4:44pm
  
  Re: Feat of Grammar
  thanks!
  
  Fixed
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Vaginalina Jolie, 2 Oct 2006 @ 7:19pm
  
  Angelina Jolie
  Vaginalina Jolie. Ode to a dirty adultering slut! She is the quintessential yeasty-twat twit-whore. The hypocritical seeker of the sloppy Aniston seconds should invest in liposuction of those gnarly sausage lips to augment her bony arse, so her head might be better nestled while up there.
  
  Vag Jolie...the apple does not fall far from the nasty Jon Voight. You have your father's bizarre, exaggerated facial twists and pus-bucket cheating heart.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - Bill Clark, 2 Oct 2006 @ 9:28pm
    
    Re: Angelina Jolie
    What the hell?
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Yo ho ho..., 2 Oct 2006 @ 4:40pm

Oh man...
... and I was gonna send them my last 1000 photos of downtown Milwaukee, (they were gonna pay me $15).

Well, to be fair -- I did try the service once, and it was pretty damn good. However, it was never gonna make it -- so this is no surprise. Outside of major metro areas, they had no coverage.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
dorpus, 2 Oct 2006 @ 4:56pm

Eventually
Will we be able to pull up information about places, with all the detailed insider knowledge, at the snap of a finger? The current situation is very uninformative, with "tourist books" steering us toward the tourist traps. Locals are often not very helpful, out of exclusiveness or taking things for granted.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Seth, 2 Oct 2006 @ 5:48pm

"Insider knowledge at the snap of a finger"?
Dorpus, are you kidding? Once it's freely available to all via web search, it is no longer "insider knowledge". That's why you're unhappy with tourist books. Here's how it works: Someone finds an awesome restaurant/hotel/art gallery/natural site that no one really seems to know about. This is "insider knowledge" because you had to be there to know it. Or maybe know someone who knows it. Then, it gets written up, or photo-blogged, or added to a search engine. Suddenly everyone knows about it. It becomes a tourist trap purely through the very means you are suggesting we use to avoid tourist trap-ism! It's cyclical, and there's no way around it except to get off your computer chair and go out and look for yourself. Trust me, keep an open mind and it'll rock.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
u no, 2 Oct 2006 @ 9:38pm

What
I don't get it. Where did Angelina Jolie come from?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- confused, 2 Oct 2006 @ 10:22pm
  
  Re: What
  I don't understand the injection either, but I'll bite...
  
  I think she comes from cross-breeding a runway model and a runaway collagen injection, or a praying mantis and one of those hairless cats, or maybe a bad acid trip and a Dennis Hopper film. (All of the above could be natural byproducts of being Jon Voight's demon spawn.) ;-)
  
  There is something about her that reminds me of a home-perm in a trailer, soggy bratwursts, and Beetlejuice...and...well...Jon Voight. ::shudders::
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 3 Oct 2006 @ 5:56am

only a gay man wouldnt want jolie
[ link to this | view in chronology ]