Amazon Sees Everything

Seattle-based Amazon.com has unveiled the ultimate online yellow pages as part of their A9 search engine. Into A9's search box, type your favorite Seattle restaurant, like for instance the Noodle Ranch in Belltown. You get all the basic yellow pages info you'd expect plus Amazon reviews, maps and - get this - a set of drive-by pictures of the establishment!

Using pictures taken with camera-mounted SUVs and tagged with GPS information, Amazon allows users to literally walk up and down the block for a visual preview of what they have searched for. They even tell you how they did it.

Now you really know where you are going before you leave. But isn't this just a little bit weird? Apparently, tens of thousands of miles were driven to provide the images, which begs the question, why use SUVs??! Has Amazon unwittingly contributed to global warming in its effort to win the search-engine war against Google and Microsoft? Could this technology be co-opted by the department of homeland security to spy on citizens?

By the way, there is a chance that Amazon took your picture. Remember that day you thought you were all sly when you left work early to sneak into Cowgirls, Inc. in Pioneer Square? Well Amazon saw you, and now you are busted.

Here is an industry impression of this crazy technology.

- Thanks kottke!