From the book lists at Adware Report:

 All information current as of 14:25:26 Pacific Time, Monday, 21 February 2005.

The Internet Age of Competitive Intelligence

   by John J. McGonagle / Carolyn M. Vella

  Hardcover:
    Quorum Books
    30 January, 1999

   US$88.95 

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Editorial description(s):

Book Description
Two of the most prolific and challenging authorities on the topic of competitive intelligence (CI) reflect on and respond to the changes in the field over the last decade. The authors point out that CI users have to change what they are doing, show why they are doing it, and provide ways of doing it. Their book reviews the problems in the development of CI since the 1980s, discusses the impact of the Internet and the rise in use of other secondary sources, and draws from and provides access to the growing body of CI information, knowledge, and literature.




Reader review(s):

How to use the Web, May 13, 2004
What difference has the Internet made to a company, if you want to find competitive intelligence on your rivals? This is the essence of the question the book poses and then tries, fairly well, to answer.

One thing to note is that when the authors refer to the Internet, often it is the Web that is actually being cited. Namely, where information is made publicly available in a browser-viewable format. Nowadays, a company may often post large portions of its personnel directory and internal structure on the Web. Plus information about who its suppliers and main clients might be. In earlier days, such information might have been very closely held.

But now, for example, a company may feel the need to publicly state that it has certain clients, to give it credibility to potential new customers. These then become various ways for you to track your rivals and assess their capabilities.

The book expounds on this in far more detail, of course. But the gist of it is that by resourcefully using the Web, a company might gain a competitive edge.
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