You read it right. Dpreview.com, probably the most popular digital photography review website on the Internet, was acquired by Amazon.com. The announcement appeared on the dpreview website earlier today.

While there were initial concerns that Amazon would merge dpreview into the amazon name, the press release states that “Dpreview.com will continue to function as a stand-alone operation.” Phew. There’s nothing worse than a big giant company eating up a good resource on the Internet.

Phil Askey, who founded the site in 1998 said “One of the difficulties of operating dpreview.com independently has been the balance between producing content and delivering new site features. Now, with the support of Amazon, I’ll be able to devote more of my time to expanding and improving our features – such as product reviews and discussion forums while still delivering the high-quality content that our readers have come to expect.”

Hopefully we don’t see an “Amazonization” of dpreview, but I’m confident Phil wouldn’t have let this deal happen if it meant losing what made dpreview such a powerful and respected resource for digital photographers.

You can read the full press release here: http://www.dpreview.com/news/0705/07051402amazonacquiresdpreview.asp.