Amazon.com Goes Down for About 2 Hours

Seattle Amazon.com's Web site went down in North America for about two hours in the middle of the day Friday because of system problems, according to the Associated Press.

Shortly after 10 a.m. PDT, the company's retail Web site shut down, giving an error code to anyone visiting it. It was back up to 60% capability around noon.

"Amazon's systems are very complex and on rare occasions, despite our best efforts, they may experience problems," Amazon.com Inc. spokesman Craig Berman said in a brief e-mail statement. "We work to minimize any disruption and to get the site back as quickly as possible."

Berman said the Web services Amazon provides for other companies were not affected, nor were its international sites.