We've previously described online mega-merchant Amazon.com as a nearly universal wish list centre, but now it really can be. Drag the Universal Wish List bookmarklet into your browser toolbar, and you can add any web page—most usefully, of course, pages of products not offered through Amazon—to your Amazon wish list. Whether you use the lists as a holding place for future self-bought gadgets or actual suggestions to gift-buyers, it's a pretty handy capture tool for multi-purchase projects, brainstorming, or just sending an easy-to-grasp link to relatives.

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Windows/Mac OS X: Amazon Watcher isn't the first gadget that can monitor Amazon items for price drops and availability, but it is the rare tool that can automatically buy your rare gear for you. Once you add your account information (and assuming you have payment methods stored on that account), you're set to have Amazon Watcher buy x units of whatever you're hunting, but it can also pop up the order page or email you, if you're less jumpy. Having all your must-grab items constantly ready for purchase can probably break strong wills, however, so, luckily, this app can reduce to the system tray. Amazon Watcher is a free download for Windows or Mac OS X systems.

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Firefox only: Save time shopping at Amazon.com with the new Better Amazon Firefox extension, which adds helpful tweaks and features to Amazon's pages. Better Amazon highlights which products the big A offers Super Saver free shipping for in search results, automatically enlarges product images, shortens Amazon URLs for easy emailing, and collapses superfluous junk on the page when you just need to get simple tasks done. After the jump, download Better Amazon and get your (stateside) online shopping done more efficiently.

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Windows/Mac/Linux (Firefox): Free review-aggregating extension Pluribo adds a subtle tweak to Amazon product pages that can often have hundreds, even thousands of reviewers weighing in on a product. After scanning the reviews, Pluribo adds a small pop-up bar at the bottom of each Amazon page, stringing together the most prevalent adjectives and thoughts on each product into one or two cohesive lines. Hovering over each adjective gives you a pop-up with more detail on how it was used, so you be sure you're avoiding the same kind of editing used in summer movie posters. The extension works mostly with electronics at the moment, but the creators aim to expand soon. Pluribo is a free download, works wherever Firefox does.

One thing that's always been missing from the book-buying experience at mega-retailer Amazon is finding great books just by chance, or by clever cover design. Zoomii, a free book-finding interface for Amazon, stacks bestsellers on virtual shelves, organized by bestsellers, category, or whatever else you're filtering for, and viewed like Google Maps—zoom, click for details, and pan around with a hand cursor. It's similar in many ways to previously posted social book browser Shelfari, but it skips your friends' tastes and goes right for the mass appeal. One (possibly temporary) drawback: the site runs a bit slower on Firefox 3 than other browsers, but the creator says he's working on it. Zoomii is free to use. For more Amazon goodies, check out our top 10 Amazon power shopper tools.

You already love the one-stop convenience of shopping online at Amazon.com, but chances are you're not getting everything you can out of this feature-packed shopping engine. Did you know Amazon can email you suggestions from Mom's wish list two weeks before her birthday? Automatically ship you a new case of toilet paper every two months? Refund the difference on the price of an item you purchased that went on sale? Several advanced Amazon features and third party apps and add-ons can help you get the best deals and the stuff you want delivered to your door right on time. After the jump, add our favourite 10 Amazon power-shopper tools to your cart.

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Find and buy items from your cell phone with the new Amazon TextBuyIt feature. It works like this: Say you're out shopping and you see a book you want to buy. You figure you could save a few bucks getting it at Amazon, so you send a text message to 'AMAZON' (262966) with the title, author, or even the ISBN code of the book. Amazon sends a text back to you with search results. You pick the result that best matches your search, and an Amazon robot voice calls you with details and asks for purchase confirmation. The first time you try TextBuyIt, you'll have to link your phone with your account, but from there on Amazon wants to make it easy to find and buy products wherever you are—and hopefully you'll save some money, too. TextBuyIt is surprisingly easy to use, but if you give it a try, let's hear your thoughts in the comments.

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Firefox only (Windows/Mac/Linux): Firefox extension BuyLater adds a Buy This Later button to Amazon pages that sets up a watch for the product on the BuyLater web site. The web site then checks Amazon for updates every minute, alerting you by email or Twitter of price changes and availability. I've just set up my first watch, but if it works as advertised BuyLater is a perfect tool for tracking often out-of-stock items—like the Wii or Kindle—or just for watching for price drops. The quick notification system, in theory, will ensure that you'll know as soon as the price changes or item becomes available, giving you first dibs on the product. BuyLater is free, works wherever Firefox does.

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Normally we leave gadget reviews to the crazy cats over at Gizmodo, but when reader Pete Riley told us he's "totally hooked" on Amazon's new reading device Kindle because of its time-saving superpowers, we had to know more. Right now the $399 e-reader is out of stock, but since Pete's one of the lucky ones who got ahold of the device, he was kind enough to write up his impressions.

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Amazon power user Merlin Mann makes a convincing case for how Amazon's Gift Organizer helps you be lazy and thoughtful when it comes to giving the perfect gift:

As you surf Amazon and notice stuff that might be cool for Mom or Aunt Sue or that nice UPS man, just click "Add to Wish List" and select the person it's intended for. Into the hopper it goes. Ubiquitous capture. Swish.[...] So, if you start using the Gift Organizer today—even for stuff you have no intention of buying from Amazon—your life is going to be much easier the next time a gift-giving occasion rolls around; you've capitalized on several months of passive, half-assed attention to actually do something useful.

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