Video: Amazon's Bezos on Oprah

A clip has already leaked out on YouTube today of Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos's appearance on Oprah. He was there to talk up the Kindle, the company's electronic book reader, but interestingly, he and Oprah are discussing Mechanical Turk, one of Amazon.com's web services. The episode is scheduled to air at 4pm in Seattle on KING 5.

Bezos and Amazon.com will certainly need all the help they can get as they head the year's holiday season, which is looking challenging given the state of the economy.

UPDATE: I just caught the Oprah episode with Bezos (he followed a performance by the operatic pop group Il Divo).

The talk show host gave all the audience members a free Kindle, eliciting whoops of joy and, in the case of one woman, tears.

Oprah talked up the electronic book reader in a huge way.

"I'm not a gadget person at all but I've fallen in love with this little baby," she said.

"I know it's expensive in these times, but it's not frivolous," she said at another point.

Oprah was so effusive that Bezos, sitting next to her, barely got a word in edgewise.

He did talk a bit about what he reads on his own Kindle, including the Wall Street Journal and New York Times, "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy, "The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life," and a book about cryogenic engineering ("I realize how nerdy that is," he admitted).

Viewers were directed to Oprah's website for a $50 Kindle discount available for the next 7 days. The Kindle normally sells for $359.

About Eric Engleman

ERIC ENGLEMAN is senior technology staff writer for TechFlash and the Puget Sound Business Journal, covering online retail giant Amazon.com. Engleman tracks Amazon's increasingly complex business, spanning ecommerce, Kindle, cloud computing, and more. He's been covering technology and other industries for the Business Journal since 2003.

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