Can Amazon mind the store?

After reading the current cover of BusinessWeek, which features Amazon.com, I want to follow-up this piece from last week and delve a little more into the vision Jeff Bezos has for Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN).

Amazon CEO Bezos (who in this man's opinion strikes an uncanny resemblance to actor Kevin Spacey) has often been misunderstood by the marketplace. After all, he guided the company through the dot-com mess five years ago and the company became profitable after years of waiting almost to the quarter which Bezos predicted. Can he see the future?

Soon Amazon will be selling computer power and storage services as commodities for small businesses, in addition to its gargantuan online retail operation that is the largest in the world. While Amazon is in the business of "managing complexity," just how far can this company stretch itself as it sells almost everything under the sun while providing logistics infrastructure for other business enterprises?

Perhaps Bezos is creating the next competitor for his own company. He doesn't seem to care, as if to say "bring it on." There's a madman at work here, but he's got an impressive track record, unlike many analysts, and of course the world will be watching. Amazon, in my opinion, is trying to become as ubiquitous as Google, but in its own way. We'll see if it gets there.

(Disclosure: I own AMZN shares as of 11-6-06)