Welcome to our weekly roundup of the top five Amazon news stories of the week.
Brazil wants Amazon to share control over the domain name to protect the ‘culture and symbolic heritage of the Amazon region’: Reuters via Business Insider reports that Brazil has proposed a compromise to a seven-year battle that has quietly raged over the Amazon.com internet domain: let the nations bordering the world’s largest rainforest co-govern the digital address with the biggest online retailer. Amazon.com Inc has been seeking rights to the domain name since 2012. But Amazon basin countries Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana and Suriname have argued that it refers to their geographic region and thus belongs to them and should not be “the monopoly of one company.” Continue reading…
Revealed: Amazon employees are left to suffer after workplace injuries: Michael Sainato at The Guardian reports on the story of Amazon employee Michelle Quinones who started working as an order picker at Amazon’s Fort Worth Fulfillment Centre in July 2017. A few months into the job, Quinones started having carpal tunnel symptoms. She was sent back to work at least 10 times from her warehouse’s Amcare clinic, put in place to provide Amazon employees with on-site first aid. Continue reading…
Amazon defends cancelling Woody Allen film deal: BBC News reports that Amazon Studios has said it was “justified” in terminating its film deal with Woody Allen. The movie/TV distributor has alleged the US film director’s comments about the #MeToo movement “sabotaged” its attempts to promote his movies. The 83-year-old is claiming more than $68m (£52 million) in damages, alleging a breach of contract after Amazon Studios failed to release A Rainy Day In New York. Continue reading…
Amazon abandons aggressive promotion of own products amid break up calls: John Glenday at The Drum reports that Amazon has scaled back its controversial practice of promoting its own products over the past few weeks, in which it gave preferential treatment to its own products in the form of high visibility, preferential search rankings, and alignment with the ‘buy box’ of competitors. Continue reading…
‘Alexa, find me a doctor’: Amazon Alexa adds new medical skills: Christina Farr at CNBC reports that Amazon’s voice assistant can now manage people’s sensitive health information, which represents an important step for the company into the $3.5 trillion health care sector. As of Thursday, consumers will be able to use about half a dozen new Alexa health skills to ask questions such as “Alexa, pull up my blood glucose readings” or “Alexa, find me a doctor,” and receive a prompt response from the voice assistant. Continue reading…
Quote of the week:
“You can fool everyone else, but you can’t fool your own mind.”
David Allen, author and productivity consultant
Have a great weekend!
