Amazon moves to front line of shaping 'Web services'

"What Amazon is doing could redirect how Web services moves into the mainstream and reorder which tech companies get rich in the process, analysts say. Suddenly, Amazon has emerged as 'a model for leveraging the benefits that Web services promise,' says Yankee Group analyst Paul Ritter. Over the past 16 months, Amazon has inspired about 30,000 developers to invent myriad ways to extend Amazon's visibility on the Web. 'Amazon basically hired the entire world to create Web services for them,' says Calin Uioreanu, a Romanian tech engineer who in his spare time runs several online stores he created to funnel sales to Amazon."