Source: News.com

Amazon expands Web services efforts

http://news.com.com/Amazon+expands+Web+services+efforts/2100-7345_3-5395052.html

Snippet:
... released two new packages of software specifications and database statistics aimed at people and companies creating Web services ties to its e-commerce systems. Doing so allows Amazon's "partners" to feature Amazon merchandise on their own Web sites.

An excellent article about Amazon's Web Services:

Amazon: Giving Away the Store (http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/05/01/issue/roush0105.asp?p=1)

Snippets:
The strategy behind Amazon Web Services is to give programmers virtually unlimited access to the very foundation of Amazon’s business—its product database—whether they are inside or outside the company’s walls. Developers can grab product data, reformat it, add related services, and use it to attract eyeballs to their own sites. If they feel like it, they’re even free, like Taylor, to create parallel-universe Amazons that have the added features they crave. Amazon demands only one thing in return: that visitors to these satellite sites complete any purchases through Amazon.com itself. The site owners, meanwhile, earn a decent commission on each sale.