Is A9 the No. 1 search engine?

Udi Manber, the CEO of Amazon.com's A9 search engine subsidiary, showed off a number of the features of his company's search tools at a meeting of Silicom Ventures, an unconventional group of venture capital investors that he believes will help Amazon become recognized as a technology company.

Among other things, Manber pointed out that A9 search results tell users if they have previously accessed the link--and when. Users can also add annotations to Web pages. Mousing over a link gives you information on traffic.

And, while declining to trash-talk his competition, Manber said his small company has already beat Google in one regard.

"A9 is the No. 1 search engine in the world...if you list them alphabetically," he said.