Gadgetopia

You know the “obidos” that you see in every Amazon URL? I’ve been seeing it for years, and always thought it was odd, but never knew what it was.

Well, according to Joel Spolsky’s book, “obidos” (little “o”) is Amazon’s custom-built e-commerce system that they’ve been laboring over since they launched in the mid-90s.

And it’s called that because “Obidos” (big “O”) is a port city on the eastern coast of Brazil next to the mouth of the…Amazon River.

Ho ho. Witty folks, those Amazons.