amazon

When people hear the word Amazon, these days, most will think of the online store that sells virtually everything. Bloggers talking about Amazon may be discussing many of the product on there from various manufacturers. Web techs might be talking about the services, including fast streaming service and cloud hosting that Amazon provides. Others may be discussing Amazon’s e-reader, the Kindle. Hot topics as of late include Kindle Fire HD vs iPad Mini, or perhaps the explosion of the Amazon Android Appstore.

Once upon a time, had you tagged a post amazon, you would have been writing about an ancient warrior woman, as recorded by the Greek historian Herodotus. You might alternatively have been referring to the world's largest river, which accounts for about 20% of the world's river flow.

Mostly likely now, however, you're referring to the multinational online retailer, which in 2008 was operating in six languages with sites in the US, China, Canada, Japan, France, Germany and the UK.

Founded out of a garage in Washington in 1994 to sell new books, it now sells clothing, houseware, electricals, and a wide range of other goods, with revenue in the third quarter of 2008 of 4.26 billion dollars.

It caused a splash in the literary world that year with its launch of an electronic book reader, the Kindle, which it has claimed as an important future part of the literary world.