Yup, it's Amazon.

Amazon is to online shopping what Walmart was to the local department store. I'm fascinated by this company not just as a shopping site but for the services they offer. I'll get to that later. Most people can name the key players at Microsoft (Gates) and Apple (Jobs). I tend to think of Matt Cutts as the face of Google (he's the guy that always talks about the SEO and algorithms) but many people know who Larry Page is if you bring that up in conversation (Google founder).Contrasting Amazon with Apple, Jeff Bezos - founder and CEO of Amazon has been very vocal about his strategy: "Your margin is my opportunity."

I like Amazon for three reasons.

1.  I'm going to get a good deal there.

2. I'm going to find what I need there.

3.  I'm going to get the best value. And they offer more than you think.

My shopping experience with Amazon has been truly amazing. I am an Amazon Prime subscriber so I get streaming movies like you do on Netflix AND I get free shipping for most of the things I buy on Amazon. If I get something that doesn't work out, I put it in the box, notify Amazon, print the return label and leave it on the door step. I listen to Audible books while I drive. I read on Kindle. I find any book I need there and I do it in the comfort of my living room. I'm really not sure how physical book stores can compete but there must be a need because Amazon is also entering the physical world with its first store in New York.

Amazon for bulk email.

Now, as far as 50Bubbles is concerned, we connect many of our clients up with Amazon services. Why? For three reasons.

1st: it works!

2nd: it's cheap!

3rd: it's secure!

50Bubbles websites have their own email marketing features using Amazon SES. For several reasons, businesses should not be sending newsletters or bulk email from the same IP address that they run their business email from or the website from. The main reason is if the business is blacklisted as a spammer (rightfully or otherwise), the business website and email can get shut out or shut down. Amazon has great security features in place so you don't spam and most businesses abide by the terms of use but can still get flagged.

Amazon for cloud storage.

I'm sure you've heard of Amazon S3 services - or perhaps the more familiar Amazon Cloud. At pennies for gigabytes, again, Amazon threatens the big boys for secure cloud storage services. I see two real reasons to use cloud storage. The first is obvious. New devices, especially phones, just don't have a lot of local storage capability. And even if they did, the second reason is the ability to access your files no matter which device you're using. If I save a file from my computer at home, it would be nice to have laptop access to that file while I'm traveling or to be able to look at it on my phone without even thinking about it. And let's face it, our phones are filling up with a bunch of snapshots that could easily be uploaded to the cloud. My last camera came with a 50Gb Dropbox account and all the pictures that I take with that camera end up in Dropbox. I have access to those pics from all of my devices. It's great.  Dropbox needs to worry about what Amazon cloud brings to the table - especially with a strategy of low price, high quality.

And I'm just scratching the surface of what Amazon brings to the party. They have their own studios and are producing their own high quality shows (much like Netflix). The top of the line Kindle rivals the Ipad in quality and ease of use. Direct connect services put you in touch with a real person in a world where we get lost in voice mail hell. Their search engine is nothing short of brilliant (watch out Google). They are creeping into local advertising (again watch out Google). They introduced a phone last year with some advanced features not found on any other phone (3-D!).

In short, I'm on the amazing Amazon band-wagon. I'm willing to bet your are too