Amazon

I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.

The man who has no imagination has no wings. --Muhammad Ali

INTRODUCTION

What do you think of a person that changes the way we work, think and live our lives? Do you think Gutenberg’s invention was pretty bad and mediocre? Well, think again friends. He is the most influential figure of the last millennium that changed the way the world works, with the invention of his printing press, as per history channel. The same can be applied to Jeff Bezos and his idea of Amazon.com. Amazon can be called as the site that induced the launch of thousand sh*ts(with all due respect to Amazon.com), as dot com dot-goners. It is the e of the e-business world. It’s slow but steady business model is the second most successful one in the otherwise lame e-business world. (EBAY being the other one). Amazon has changed the way people shop, once for all.

AMAZON – An Introduction

Amazon, which was started by the Princeton graduated Jezz Bezos (a son of Cuban immigrant), thinking of the innumerous branches the great river in Brazil has, is indeed the site that many corporations envy. It has come a long way from the very modest beginnings of being run on three Sun machines in a garage in Seattle and from selling Douglas Hofstadter’s Fluid Concepts & Creative Analogies to selling millions of books a day. It is being used by many major corps for they do not have anything close to the technology and innovation that Amazon.com serves. Except for a short boycott by Free Software Foundation for two years for the “One-Click” issue with Barnes & Noble, Amazon has done a lot to this internet world.

Amazon took five years to turn in a profit in a slow manner, much to the unhappiness of the shareholders. It has catapulted many people to their millionaire-hood and is a darling to many. It is also exploring the beta technology of a9.com and is the owner of imdb.com. Amazon’s technology was catapulted with the acquisition of a dream silicon valley startup “junglee.com” which focused on internet to generate the databases in virtual manner (vRDBMS).

Technically, Amazon.com is at its peak. No other e-business company comes near it. It goes by six core philosophy of customer excellence and focuses on customers for they are the kings.

AMAZON.COM – AN ANALYSIS

Buying in Amazon is a breeze. It is one of the sites in the world that I can trust with my entire life-savings. It is very much customer friendly and has so many initiatives focussed at the customer like no other site in the world offers.

~~CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE – 5 Stars

The use of very minimal text in the site is a welcome change. It uses images in a beautifully compressed manner. Only place where you may encounter a load-time is when you preview the book pages as an embedded PDF file. The registration is simple, one click purchase is beautiful and additional features such as the “review” by customers, discussion board and text search provided by the authors is simply awesome. If any new customer experience enhancement is seen in any internet site, it was more or less invented here in amazon.com. Except for a tussle on “One Click”, amazon is amazing. I have purchased well over 100 items in the past 7 years (My first association was as early as 1997). It maintains the pattern you purchase/browse and suggests the titles without you even needing to think. What else do you need when you have AI embedded through usage patterns.

~~SECURITY – 5 Stars

The security of the site is truly impeccable. As I said, I can certainly vouch my entire lifesavings in this site. Never had any issue with amazon. You have the option to shop in a super secure manner with the maximum strength SSL.

~~TECHNOLOGY – 5 Stars

Amazing and Amazing. The site uses so many innovations that may live up to the name of the river itself. Amazon is the technological zenith. No question about it. It has introduces ASIN which has become the international standard for e-procurement. It’s innovation in the form of a9.com to protect digital copyrights is a class act. The hassle-free shopping cart innovation, browsing based title suggestion, customizable usage pattern, Amazon Stores and discussion boards are simply awesome. It was the first to introduce email confirmation et al.You need to experience it to really love it.

~~SITE NAVIGABILITY – 5 Stars

While it is possible to get lost in the Amazonian forest, when you search for titles, the site remembers many things that you have navigated so far and provides a backtracking option and it is quite useful. Nowhere you are lost. You can easily get to the point you were with few clicks. I love the navigation feature of Amazon like anything

~~PRICE – 5 Stars

This is the best feature of the site. This is something none of the brick and mortar companies could compete with. Amazing prices on new as well as used books is the one main reason that I visit this site for. You can pretty much get a set of books for a cheaper price. While it may not give dirt-cheap prices on technical books such as bookpool.com and all, it is still very competitive

~~OVERALL – 5 Stars

I have said enough. This is the site/portal/company I trust the most.

CONCLUSION

Time Magazine chose Jeff Bezos as the man of the year in 1999. I strongly belive it is correct. He is a true example of rags to riches fairy-tale. From very modest beginnings he has lived the American Dream of becoming the popular figure he is now. All along he has taken everyone in his journey of excellence. His imagination is not only a giant leap for mankind but a paradigm shift altogether.

Jeff Bezos and Amazon are the two names I revere to the core.

Long live Amazon and don’t get swollen by Pythons in the world.!!

I Hope you liked the review. Do comment if time permits

KALIL

Imagination is not a talent of some men but is the health of every man.

--Albert Einstein