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Article: Amazon, the software company.
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- October 14, 2000
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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WHATEVER you think about Amazon's long-term prospects, there is no doubting the online retailer's ability to innovate. Every few weeks a new feature appears on its website; the latest example, called "Page You Made", was launched on September 21st. The initial reaction is often fierce criticism, yet within months rivals usually adopt the idea too.
Critics were outraged, for example, when Amazon started to allow customers to review books; and publishers objected to the introduction of rankings assigning a chart position to every book in print based on its sales. But both of these ideas are now common on other retail sites. So Amazon added further tweaks--for ...