If these and other such DNA-based technologies become widely used, how might they change the way evolution proceeds, as compared with the natural evolutionary mechanisms of the past almost 4 billion years?

Craig Venter made a new life form (a bacterium) from scratch – essentially from computer database, and a few bottles of chemicals:
http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2010/0521/J.-Craig-Venter-Institute-creates-first-synthetic-life-form

If these and other such DNA-based technologies become widely used, how might they change the way evolution proceeds, as compared with the natural evolutionary mechanisms of the past almost 4 billion years?