After reading this piece, it made me think of how normal consumers can affect the commerce of everything on the web these days, from buying and selling cars to purchasing that engagement diamond or placement for the dinner table. A staple of the success of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) in transitioning browsers to buyers has been the strength of customer reviews on the site. Instead of staid and boring marketing specs that don't reveal how the unit works, customer reviews can wander into details, pros and cons that everyday buyers can find useful.

The problem is that every Tom, Dick and Harry can leave a review. From my experience, the majority of reviews posted on products featured at Amazon.com are written by people who have no business writing reviews. Many are baseless rants on product features (which are usually lacking in truth) to reviews that seem to serve as a platform for jargon, eccentric writing and creative word use more than useful, everyday knowledge.

So, when Amazon.com lets other customers actually comment on reviews from actual (hopefully) owners of certain products, what is the result? Intelligent, informed and rational customers must wade through all the muck to find useful and well-thought-out information. Now, I know the power of the people to eventually come to a truthful conclusion about things (The Wisdom of Crowds) generally works.

This is not unique to Amazon, but when the e-tailer sells more merchandise than any other web-based retailer, effects like these cause sales pause for many, including your truly. I've moved purchases elsewhere simply because the 'useful' customer reviews at Amazon.com degenerated into a bottomless pit of garbage and I moved my business elsewhere to find some semblance of review rationality. Do other customers do this? I have to think they do -- and Amazon (still a favorite retailer of mine) loses sales because of it.

Looks like online retailer Amazon.com will have a few select Sony Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii game console to sell soon -- to a lucky group of online shoppers, that is. Amazon.com is offering limited quantities of the PS3 (20GB and 60GB) and Nintendo Wii consoles as part of a rather goofy but smart marketing campaign.

As there are no guarantees on getting a console, prospective customers will see the odds of possibly 'winning a chance' to buy one of the consoles listed on the promotion page for each console here.

The sad news for gaming aficionados everywhere is that you'll have to be 'selected' in order to make a purchase. If you are selected, you will be given a claim code and be able to buy the console you signed up for. With the gaming hype being in full force now and with the Christmas holiday just a week away, I can't imagine how many customers will be signing up with Amazon.com to get in virtual line for the chance at being able to buy one of these gaming consoles.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) seems to sell just about every possible category of retail goods under the sun these days, as the venerable online e-tailer has expanded from books only to car parts, electronics, groceries and even pet supplied. With that said, most of these categories are products. Well, how about services? Why doesn't Amazon.com sell them? Or at least, allow third parties to sell services at the website of the world's largest online retail shopping site?
Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) has announced that it will begin selling its high-speed Internet service at Amazon.com starting now. It's possible that Comcast is not explaining its high-speed Internet offerings at its own website correctly or with the right amount of selling expertise. No, that can't be it. Is the large telecom company wanting to try and persuade customers of competitive services to switch to its own service? Perhaps.

Is Comcast wanting to get its brand and service offerings in front of as many eyeballs as possible and play the game of averages? Eureka! Amazon.com offers that opportunity and tens of thousands of larger and smaller companies have already figured this out -- but almost all of them sell "products", not "services". So, if you're already on a high-speed connection and are browsing for Christmas gifts or other holiday gifts at Amazon.com, you might be persuaded to change your service to Comcast -- and the fishhook is this: the company is presenting customers who sign up for its service on Amazon.com with a $100 Amazon.com gift certificate that is valid through the 2006 holiday season. Hook, line and sinker.

With Amazon.com, Inc.'s (NASDAQ:AMZN) latest quarterly results showing an operating cash flow that declined 11% to $587 million for the trailing twelve months -- compared with $661 million for the trailing twelve months ended September 30, 2005 -- Amazon still needs bright spots in sales growth among all its categories to look attractive to investors.

It's true that Amazon has been adding capex into its business in a large way to pad the future outlook for the company. This is a good thing that also leaves some bad financial marks in the short-term. But, businesses aren't in business for the short term. That is, unless we all close our eyes and look back to the 2000-2001 timeframe.

Amazon's free cash flow decreased 23% to $366 million for the trailing twelve months before it's latest quarterly results, compared with $475 million for the trailing twelve months ended September 30, 2005, driven primarily by its increased expenditure in technology and content -- that needed but nasty capex thing.