Comment by PaulDavisThe1st

> You wouldn't really think that an online bookstore needs to be an extensible, programmable platform. Would you?

Well, we were making it a platform in small ways long before that edict from Bezos. But because it used to be only an online bookstore, the footprint was a lot smaller.

1. the external interface was ... HTTP

2. the pages were designed to be easily machine parsable

3. you could queue up search queries that amzn would run on its own hardware, and notify you of the results asynchronously.

Sure, this didn't look anything like the things Yegge is describing, but the idea that "it's a platform, dummies" was some new revelation is misleading.