Google Hires Head Of Amazon.com’s Search Unit

Job searches come easy to search engine experts.

Udi Manber, the chief executive of Amazon.com’s (nasdaq: AMZN - news - people ) search engine subsidiary A9 has found a new home at Google (nasdaq: GOOG - news - people ). Effective Friday, Manber will become Google’s vice president of engineering.

Manber is the most recent high-profile hire that Google has siphoned away from its Internet portal competitors in the past few years. In that time, Google has ascended to the top of the search field and garnered a majority market share in all searches.

In April 2004, Amazon attempted to compete with Google in the search arena by launching its own search engine, A9.com. But you’re not alone if you haven’t heard of it–all Amazon has gotten for its efforts is a position as the 29th most popular search engine, according to Nielsen Net Ratings.

A9 uses a variety of search options to personalize results for users, including keywords and images from Google itself. It also returns results from Wikipedia and the Internet Movie Database. Because A9 saves all search queries as part of each user’s Amazon.com account, some critics feel the search engine infringes on privacy rights, though there is a version of A9 available that doesn’t save personal information.

But A9 is only one effort Amazon has made to chase the lead of Eric Schmidt’s Google. The Seattle-based company has reportedly begun approaching the owners of content sites in its Associates program, asking them to participate in a trial advertising network much like Google’s AdSense program.

The trial would put links to Amazon.com products as well as other products on partner sites. Google shares revenues from these types of ads with the site owners, though Amazon has not said whether it will do this.