Amazon.com's recent pronouncement about the 2008 holiday shopping season being its "best ever" has generated a fair amount of questioning in the media, since the company skimped on providing any meaningful sales data.

But Amazon continues to rack up plaudits. A survey released today by ForeSee Results ranks the company No. 1 among online retailers for shopper satisfaction. Amazon shares the top spot with movie rental company Netflix.

A couple other Seattle-area companies made it into the top 40: Drugstore.com, Nordstrom.com and Costco.com.

The poll results are good news for Amazon, at a time when many retailers are coming to grips with a grim holiday shopping season. But the survey also contains the seeds of a potentially troubling trend for Amazon. As AllThingsD's MediaMemo points out, several big box store chains (Wal-mart, Staples, and Target among them) saw significant increases in their satisfaction rating -- a possible indication that shoppers are growing more comfortable with buying online from brick-and-mortar retailers.

Amazon watchers will presumably have to wait until the company releases fourth-quarter financial results to get a fuller picture of its holiday sales. Among the outstanding questions: Did revenue go up or down, did buyers shy away from big-ticket items, and did discounts take a bite out of profits?