MSN Live is now powering Amazon's Alexa and A9 search results instead of previous search partner Google, reports Search Engine Lowdown's Garrett French, citing Aaron Wall at Thread Watch and others. Previously, Alexa's search results were essentially Google results - tweaked by user data from the Alexa toolbar and post-search refinement buttons.

The bloggers wonder whether the change is a harbinger of changes in Amazon's - and others' (such as eBay's) - relationships with Google, which has positioned itself as a competitor to current and erstwhile partners. "Google opened the content floodgates with Google Base, creating competition for the companies in its organic results," writes French. "Google dumpings are the industry's way of saying, 'you can serve our cake but you can't bake your own.'"

In his coverage two years ago of A9's launch by Amazon, John Battelle foresaw the potential contradictions: "Of course anyone who's been in this game for a while will tell you that the internet industry is rife with cat and mouse games of cooperation turned to competition…. What makes this particularly noteworthy is that A9 is built quite literally on top of Google. In short, Amazon has taken the best of Google, and made it, to my mind, a lot better. Sound familiar? Yup, it's what Google did to Yahoo, Yahoo to Netscape…you get the picture."