Have to agree with everything Jim said. Sometimes there's an application that just *must* be used, no matter what the technology.

FWIW, Amazon uses an amazing mix of technologies. From custom adaptations (*heavy* modifications!) of open source web servers (i.e., Apache, I *think*) to Java to C++, using databases from Oracle and MySQL and a lot of "roll your own". Truly, they don't seem to put all their eggs in any one basket.

p.s.: And I did say I lean toward ASP.NET. Given a brand new project with no obvious reasons to go to something else, that's what I would choose. Yes, with SQL Server 2005 or newer. That's despite the fact that I just spent 2+ years working almost exclusively with JSP.