By Aled Herbert, 27 August 1999 15:19
NEWS Microsoft staffers' favourite book is Business @ the Speed of Thought : Using a Digital Nervous System by Bill Gates. Oracle employees have bought more copies of The Difference Between God and Larry Ellison : Inside Oracle Corporation, by Mike Wilson, than any other. These statistic come from Amazon.com, which has been publishing details of corporate customers' online buying habits. As well as demonstrating the loyalty of high-tech workers, the practice has landed the online book seller in hot water with one company, which complained that by publishing the reading habits of its employees, its competitors might be alerted to future corporate strategy. For example, the most purchased books by employees of Anglo-Dutch company, Unilever, was a book lauding the business achievements of its leading rival, Procter & Gamble. The results also showed that three out of the top five best-selling titles at US snack-maker, Nabisco, were all diet books. Amazon.com is rethinking the policy of publishing this information, and now allows users to withhold data from the online lists.
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