Amazon pulling plug on Alexa Web Search |
Register here for our next TechFlash Live networking event, March 23, featuring an expert panel discussing the future of online advertising.
Not every online service that Amazon.com touches turns to gold. TechCrunch reports today that the online retailer is shutting down Alexa Web Search, citing an email to developers which said they turned off the service yesterday for new customers with existing customers out of luck as of Jan. 26.
The reason for the closure: very few people were using it. Or, as TechCrunch succinctly puts it in this headline: "Amazon to Shut Down Web Search Service; Practically No One Affected."
Companies often use the holidays to release news they don't really want anyone to see. It is unclear whether that was the case here, but I wouldn't be surprised to see some other "bad news" leak out in the next day or two.
In a note on the Alexa Web Search site, the company says the service has been deprecated.
"The Alexa Web Search web service provides programmatic access to Alexa’s web search engine. The service has been deprecated and is no longer available for new subscriptions. The resources below are available for existing users of the service."
Seattle University Software Engineering
Chinwe Okeke (MSE’08) pursued her graduate degree while working as a developer and technical analyst for the Boeing Company. She picked the SU-MSE program for small class sizes and real world learning opportunities offered through the academic service-learning and capstone projects.
The MSE program at Seattle University is geared for working professionals with classes offered in the evenings. The program builds upon the computing experience of its students and offers courses in a variety of technical and management areas of software engineering, with an emphasis on teamwork and a disciplined approach to problem solving.
Marchex is one of Seattle’s largest ad technology companies with 300+ employees providing call and click based performance marketing products, and managing over $100m in ad budget for tens of thousands of advertisers. Our customers range from local businesses to the Fortune 500.
Our talented and creative product engineering group is hiring.
If you are an innovative software design engineer interested in solving difficult problems at scale, across a wide array of technologies from Lucene to Hadoop to Asterisk and SIP then we’d love to hear from you!
Apply now.
Technology Tax Planning – Did You Take The Deduction?
Technology companies require professional advisors who can assist in all aspects of the business. The BDO Technology Practice provides a full range of services tailored to help address the changing needs of domestic and international companies. In addition to core audit and tax services, BDO professionals can assist technology companies with:
· Revenue recognition
· Business combination accounting
· R&D tax credits
· Compensation and benefits
· Business valuations
Backed by 38 national offices and an international network in 110 countries, we have the domestic and global footprint to serve growing technology companies. Contact sphilpott@bdo.com (audit partner), mreeves@bdo.com (audit partner), psmith@bdo.com (tax partner), tzambito@bdovaluation.us.com (valuation), tfiscus@bdo.com, Director, 206.624.2020