Amazon's A9 search engine launched a quirky feature where it allows visitors to view the storefronts of locally-listed businesses, according to USAToday. It claims to have 20 million such storefront images stored and ready. (More information on the interface and interactions with those local businesses at SearchEngineWatch.) It says it took pictures of every city block in the U.S.'s top ten markets with trucks outfitted with modified roof-top cameras. Back in the early days of online shopping experiments, many stores worked to re-create the in-store experience, complete with images of aisles, products, and in one case, even an animated shopping cart. All of that extra effort to imitate real life turned out to have reproduced the worst parts of the shopping experience, where buyers actually wanted just the quick listings. A9's efforts will likely fare better, as sometimes searchers may need to visually retrace their steps to remember which store it was they liked so much.