Amazon: Web 2.0 and business as usual

 Om Malik got talking with some peeps from Pandora (I love what they do) and Akimbo:

"The whole conversation did get me thinking about the role of Amazon.com in what the kids are calling Web 2.0. If you look at what they have done over past five years, and you quickly realize that the Seattle-based online retailer is a really a harbinger of what’s to come. Alongside Google it was the one of first to offer API to its data, opening it up for mash-ups with other web services. Now everyone is doing it.

XML and Javascript, and hyper-customization are part of business as usual at Amazon, and have been from the very start. The recommendation engines now common place on music and blog search services are part of routine offerings from Amazon. They started the whole local search craze, with maps, and street level visuals of local businesses as part of the A9 search. Now others are following suit. This is not to glorify one company, but just to use them as a predictor of what’s to follow."

If the Mechanical Turk is anything to go by, Amazon has plenty of innovation left in them yet.

Btw, according to Jeff Barr last night, MT was Jeff Bezos' idea. No wonder Amazon's CEO is looking so happy ;-)

Update: Don Hinchcliffe provides more thoughts on Amazon's latest innovation, as does another Microsoft blogger, Adam Barr.