Is Amazon really headed down the right track?

With Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) getting into almost every category of the selling business imaginable, can the largest online-only retailer continue the growth that CEO Jeff Bezos has trumpeted from the company's very start? In the last full week, starting on October 24th when the retailer said that lower technology spending and content would make for improved operating profits very soon, AMZN shares spiked 18%. Wow -- such a nebulous statement results in an 18% stock price spike? Every company should say this and watch its shares go nuts I guess.

But this sentiment sits a little bowlegged when Amazon.com reports that it will be selling infrastructure services like data storage and computer processing logistics among CDs and stuffed bears. Don't those things cost, ahem, money in terms of technology spending? Or, did Amazon simply bulk up its data centers and other features in the near-past and now hopes to capitalize on these recent building efforts by also offering new services to smaller businesses and third-party sellers?

As Doug McIntyre notes, Amazon believes that since it has spent 11 years building a huge web infrastructure for itself and its merchants, it could share its knowledge. At what time does Amazon.com stop trying to be the "Google" of the web commerce arena and curtails cost outlays that have questionable return in the future? That's a question for AMZN investors to ponder -- at what point is too much, too much?

[Disclosure: I own AMZN shares as of 11-3-06]