As for Amazon.com proper, the signs were not exactly reassuring:

Http/1.1 Service Unavailable

A later, more officially- sanctioned-looking notice on the site ultimately proved to be not much more reassuring:

We're sorry!

An error occurred when we tried to process your request. Rest assured, we're already working on the problem and expect to resolve it shortly.

If you were trying to make a purchase, please check Your Account to confirm that the order was placed.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

Evidently, it's not enough to calm the rising tide of panic here on the blogosphere. At the moment, I count 429 Diggs for one post about Amazon being down -- increasing currently at a rate of 30 posts a minute.

Technorati, meanwhile, returns 38,901 results for "amazon down".

Google News is tracking "about 5,713" results for "amazon down".

The U.K.'s Daily Express attributed the downtime to a pricing glitch that saw prices on DVD box sets of shows including the first three seasons of Desperate Housewives going for £78.

Another site attributed the downtime to unprecedented discounts -- and unanticipated demand, apparently -- for the Metal Gear Solid 4 bundle.

It's not so much the fact that Amazon may have had a widespread pricing glitch -- it's that folks can attribute it to specific products that makes the panic-watching worthwhile.

Meanwhile, one reporter over here, who shall remain nameless, couldn't resist weighing in with his own contribution to the growing body of crackpot theories about the downtime. His take? Perhaps Amazon finally caved under the pressure of the new New York State tax burden.

Hey, unless I hear otherwise, that theory is as good as any else I'm seeing.

4:30pm ET UPDATE: Shares of AMZN closed down 4.59 percent on the news! 769 Diggs! About 5,734 Google News results!

Also, AdAge seems to believe Amazon lost about $2.7 million in sales during 90 minutes of downtime.