Highlights: Business Information - key web resources
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Business Information: key web resources Highlights from the full presentation [email protected]. uk twitter.com/ karenblakeman http://www.linkedin.co m/in/karenblakeman http://www.rba.co.uk/ Business Sources www.rba.co.uk/sources/ TFPL, London, 19 th September 2013
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Selected highlights from the presentation for the workshop "Business information: key web resources", held at TFPL in London on 19th September 2013.
Transcript of Highlights: Business Information - key web resources
Business Information: key web resourcesHighlights from the full presentation
twitter.com/karenblakeman
http://www.linkedin.com/in/karenblakeman
http://www.rba.co.uk/
Business Sources www.rba.co.uk/sources/
TFPL, London, 19th September 2013
Why not just “Google”?
1. It personalises your results [Use private browsing options]
2. It automatically looks for variations on your terms and drops terms from your search without telling you [Use intext: or Verbatim]
3. Google does not automatically search everything it has [Use any advanced search command or Verbatim]
4. Google cannot search password protected sites or databases
5. Google changes its search and ranking algorithms about 500 times a year How Google makes improvements to its search algorithm http://youtu.be/J5RZOU6vK4Q
6. We are all Google’s lab rats “Just Testing: Google Users May See Up To A Dozen Experiments” http://searchengineland.com/just-testing-google-searchers-may-see-up-to-a-dozen-experiments-141570 [Private browsing or Verbatim may rescue you]
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Google Verbatim
intext: to force an exact match for one term
To force an exact match and inclusion of a term in a search prefix it with ‘intext:’
UK public transport intext:biodiesel statistics
“..” around terms does not always work
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How to “un-personalise” your search
Chrome - New Incognito window Ctrl+Shift+N
FireFox - File, New Private Window Ctrl+Shift+P
Internet Explorer – Tools, InPrivate Browsing [location varies depending on which version you have] Ctrl+Shift+P
Opera – File, New Private Window Ctrl+Shift+N
Safari – click on Safari next to the Apple symbol in the menu bar, select Private Browsing and then click on OK.
Will not remove country “personalisation”
Assessing quality/relevance
Name of organisation/person clearly stated
Scope of information
Can you easily contact the “owner”
Date published or updated
Primary or secondary source
Repackaged information e.g. Companies House data
Coverage (industry, time span, geographical spread)
Type of website e.g. gov.uk, ac.uk
Who owns the domain name
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Domaintools.com – who owns a domain name
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Free vs. Fee
Free
Basic company information, contact details, sometimes full accounts, search for companies by name/number one at a time, simple print out
Anonymous statistics, total market/industry figures
Current news - free text searching, many key industry publications not free, difficult to focus search
May be limited in coverage, time span
Fee
Full company accounts, historical data, search by multiple criteria, analysis and report features
Detailed market share by company name, product/brand
Indexed content, easier to search for historical information by event type, more flexible search and print options
More likely to be comprehensive and have more extensive archives
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Social media and professional networks
Where people and organisations share, discuss, comment and ask questions
It is where the conversations are happening
It is where a lot of marketing takes place
Use for research, competitor intelligence, reputation monitoring, how are companies presenting themselves and interacting with customers
Google “encouraging” people to sign up for Google+
Many business information resources encourage logins with social media accounts
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General starting points
Business Sources on the Net http://www.rba.co.uk/sources/
BL - Business Essentials on the Web http://bl-business-essentials.wikispaces.com/
– “a one-stop shop for website listings for entrepreneurs and SMEs covering.... ‘business planning’, ‘grants and finance’, ‘marketing and PR’ as well as industry specific pages.”
British Library Business & IP Centre in London Industry guides http://www.bl.uk/bipc/dbandpubs/Industry%20guides/industry.html
Library & Information Service ICAEW http://www.icaew.com/en/library
SCOTBIS (Scottish Business Information Service) http://scotbis.nls.uk/
Buslib-L – discussion list for business librarians and researchers– http://list1.ucc.nau.edu/archives/buslib-l.html (login required)– FAQs at https://sites.google.com/site/busliblistserv/
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Company information
Ownership, structure, accounts, activities, news Availability depends on
– type of company• sole trader• partnership• private • limited liability e.g. Ltd, LLP• companies with publicly traded shares e.g. PLC
– business size (large, medium, small)
– countrystate or region within the country
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Exemptions
For UK small and medium sized enterprises
May prepare and file abbreviated accounts
Must fulfil at least two of the following conditions to qualify
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Exemptions not available to public companies, banking, insurance or shipping companies
Small Medium
Turnover not exceeding £6.5m £25.9m
Assets/balance sheet not exceeding
£3.26m £12.9m
Average number of employees 50 250
UK Companies House– http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/
– free, subscription, and document pay per view options
– documents £1 each
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CRO - Companies Registration Office Ireland http://www.cro.ie/en/homepage.aspx
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Company Check
http://companycheck.co.uk/
UK & Ireland companies and director search
Some info free, some free with login, some free with “pro” account, some pay as you go
Provides 5 years of figures and graphs for Cash at Bank, Net Worth, Total Current Liabilities and Total Current Assets
Download up to 5 yrs of accounts
Companies house documents (£2 or 99p depending on subscription)
Credit risk, charges, CCJs,
Monitor company for financial changes and when new accounts are filed
Lists directors of a company - see what other directorships they have
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http://companycheck.co.uk/subscription/subscribe
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Company Check
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Company Check
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Company Check
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Official company information – other countries
Lists of official company registers
– Official Company Registers
http://www.rba.co.uk/sources/registers.htm
– Company registration around the world
http://www.commercial-register.sg.ch/home/worldwide.html
– Companies House Links
http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/links/introduction.shtml#reg
US – listed companies
– SEC Edgar IDEA – Interactive Date Electronic Applications
http://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml
Canada - listed companies
– SEDAR http://www.sedar.com/
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European Business Register
Gateway to official company information in 26 European countries– http://www.ebr.org
UK distributer is GBRDirect – priced service– http://www.gbrdirect.co.uk
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7side
http://www.7side.co.uk/
Priced service
UK companies and documents, directors information, insolvency reports
Credit reports
International registry and documents service– 1 hour registry and documents service
www.7side.co.uk/moreinfo/International_Registry_and_Documents_Service.pdf
– translation service available
– have agents "on the ground", can quickly tell you what is available in that country and what may not be available
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Examples of problem areas for the researcher
Switzerland– only banks, insurance companies and companies traded on the
Swiss stock exchange are required to provide financial statements
Cayman Islands– “The Registrar of Companies can only release the name and
type of company, its date of registration, the address of the registered office and the company’s status. Disclosing any other information is prohibited unless requested by a law enforcement agency.”
British Virgin Islands– “A company is not required to file its register of directors, register
of members, register of charges or an annual return with the BVI Registrar of Corporate Affairs.”
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Publicly traded companies – share prices
Free– current share prices delayed by 15-30 minutes
– real-time prices if you have a share dealing account with a broker e.g. TD Direct Investing (http://www.tddirectinvesting.co.uk/)
– only cover companies currently listed on the exchange
– some historical data as charts or figures (e.g. Yahoo Finance and Google Finance)
– Yahoo and Google cover major stock markets
– go direct to the stock exchange web site
Priced– for more detailed analysis
– full historical data
– stocks no longer traded or merged with another company
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Google Finance
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Yahoo Finance
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Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A)
Search free news on the web (e.g. http://news.google.co.uk/) using keywordsDetailed information on rumours, deals in progress and completed deals usually pricedMergers and Acquisitions
– http://www.rba.co.uk/sources/manda.htm
BvD’s Mergers and Acquisitions Portal – http://www.mandaportal.com/– news, features, summaries and basic deal information are free
of charge– free reports reviewing recent activity in M&A– free reports discussing industry sectors where there is increased
activity– links into the Zephyr database – full reports on deals are priced.
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Databases for information on smaller companies
Confirm contact details using telephone directories
– http://www.teldir.com/
BvD Mint Free Directory search
– http://www.bvdinfo.com/
– only basic contact details free of charge, additional information priced
Directories such as
– Applegate http://www.applegate.co.uk/
– Europages http://www.europages.com/
– solusource http://www.solusource.com/
– Kompass http://www.kompass.com/
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Statistics and industry data
Free– government statistics
– industry overviews
– executive summaries
– press releases
– trade press - possibly
Priced for– industry specific market shares
– named companies
– brand names
– detailed rankings
When carrying out research often have to use data from different sources
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Think file format
– PDF for research documents, government reports, industry papers– ppt or pptx for presentations, tracking down an expert on a topic– xls or xlsx for spreadsheets containing data
Use the advanced search screen or the filetype: command UK waste vegetable oil energy generation filetype:pdf
UK waste vegetable oil energy generation filetype:pptUK waste vegetable oil energy generation filetype:pptxUK waste vegetable oil energy generation filetype:xls UK waste vegetable oil energy generation filetype:xlsx
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Using Google site:
site: to search within a site or type of site
housing regeneration swansea site:wales.gov.ukhousing regeneration swansea site:gov.uk
Also site:ac.uk site:nhs.uk
Can exclude sites using -site:
housing regeneration swansea site:gov.uk -site:wales.gov.ukorgan donation statistics wales -site:au
Does NOT search inside databases or protected areas
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Statistics and industry data
Google Numeric range search– can be weights, distances, years, prices – use Advanced Search screen – or the search box on the Google home page– search term(s) first value..second value unit of measurement – examples:
• beer per capita consumption uk 2008..2012• TV advertising spend forecasts 2015..2020
Looking for experts on a topic, presentations, general background on a subject, information on an organisation?
– advanced search ppt or pdf format
– Slideshare http://www.slideshare.net/
– search within Slideshare or use site: search
– biofuels uk public transport 2009..2013 site:slideshare.net
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Slideshare.net
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Google Reading level
Changes the type of material that is returned
Nothing to do with publishers’ assigned reading age
Run the search and from the menu above the results select Search tools, All results, Reading level
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Starting points for statistics
Statistics Sources– http://www.rba.co.uk/sources/stats.htm
Official Statistics on the Webhttp://www.offstats.auckland.ac.nz
UK National Statistics Publication Hubhttp://www.statistics.gov.uk/
Office for National Statisticshttp://www.ons.gov.uk/
Welsh Government | Statisticshttp://wales.gov.uk/topics/statistics/?lang=en
Welsh Assembly Government StatsWaleshttp://statswales.wales.gov.uk/
data.gov.uk http://data.gov.uk/
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More open data but.....
Raw data – no pretty layouts or visualisations, you have to do that
Data may need weeding and cleaning before it is usable
May have to do a LOT of work on the data to get anything sensible out of it
To see what you could be letting yourself in for look at Tony Hirst’s blog postings on open data at http://blog.ouseful.info/
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Office for National Statistics
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/
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Publication Hub (http://www.statistics.gov.uk/) is an “index” to what is available and links through to other sites when necessary.
ONS (http://www.ons.gov.uk/) only shows reports since 2008 even if there are earlier editions. Use the Publication Hub (http://www.statistics.gov.uk/) to search for the report title/series. Once you have found an edition of the title click on “Current and past editions” to see the list of editions available. Then click on the relevant report.
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European Union - Open Data Portal http://open-data.europa.eu/open-data/
EU launches public beta of its open data portal – http://www.rba.co.uk/wordpress/2013/01/08/eu-launches-public-
beta-of-its-open-data-portal/
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Guardian Data Store http://www.guardian.co.uk/data
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Data and analysis on topics that are in the newsSome data sets created from information obtained via FoILinks to the original datasets are provided
Zanran http://www.zanran.com/
Searches graphs, charts, tables, PDFs, spreadsheets
Can limit by location of server, date, and filetype
Title in results list is usually the title or caption to the table and not title of the document
Hover over the thumbnail to see a preview of the table or page
Click on the URL button next to the result to view the original URL of the document
– clicking on it may take you to “page not found” 404
Click on the title of the result to see Zanran’s own copy (free registration usually required
Useful if document no longer available at it’s original location and can’t be found in any of the web archives
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Zanran
Zanran – great for data in tables, charts and graphs http://www.rba.co.uk/wordpress/2013/01/25/zanran-great-for-data-in-tables-charts-and-graphs/
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Google Public Data Explorer
http://www.google.com/publicdata/
One of Google's best kept secrets!
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ReportLinker http://www.reportlinker.com/
Searches public and private reports and dataSome information displayed free of chargeTo download or view the public reports there is a charge
– £49 for a one day access– £69 for monthly access (recurring charge unless you cancel it)
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Statista http://www.statista.com/
“The Statistics Portal for Market Data, Market Research and Market Studies”
– 60,000 topics from over 18,000 sources
– http://www.statista.com/topics/
– some information free, registration (free) required
– Chart of the Day
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Datamarket http://datamarket.com/
Open portal to datasets worldwide and market research
Creates visualisations of the data
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Finding market research - aggregators
Pull together reports from many publishers and make them searchable through a single interface
Can purchase reports through the one service
Aggregators may not be comprehensive– publishers may embargo reports for weeks or months
– publishers may withhold some reports from aggregators
– check the publisher’s own web site or email them to see if there is additional or more recent research available
– may get a better deal by going to the publisher direct
– use aggregators as an index to see who is publishing on your topic
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Examples of aggregators
Alacrastore– http://www.alacrastore.com/
ISI Emerging Markets– http://www.securities.com/
Marketresearch.com– http://www.marketresearch.com/
Profound - Market Intelligence– http://www.profound.com/
Report Buyer– http://www.reportbuyer.com/
Research and Markets– http://www.researchandmarkets.com/
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News
Most newspapers and magazines are on the web
Free services– may not be complete publication
– may not have archives
– search facilities may be limited
– print stories one by one
Many news and trade press titles are free but some are priced
Official company press releases
Stock exchange listed companies– major news, developments and changes affecting their operations
have to be reported to shareholders via the stock exchange announcements for example UK Regulatory News Service
– Various sources e.g. FE InvestEgate | Company Announcements http://www.investegate.co.uk/
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News
For tracking down individual newspapers– http://www.abyznewslinks.com/
– http://www.kidon.com/media-link/index.php
Google News – advanced search options limited and not always reliable
– no source list and sources frequently change
– key industry publications may not be included and definitely not included if subscription
– older and Archive News may be priced
Use Google news and web search to identify specialist news portals or aggregators for your subject and monitor those direct
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Google News http://news.google.co.uk/
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Can personalise news content when signed in to a Google account.
Hidden underneath the cog wheel on the news home page.
Change your location (automatically identified by Google), topics covered, sources and frequency of articles from sources.
Google News
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Can limit results to a time period.
Time options don’t always work in the ‘Archives’
Older material may be priced
Can create email and RSS alerts for a search but unreliable
Creating a Google news RSS alert
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Has Google dumped RSS alerts or not? http://www.rba.co.uk/wordpress/2013/07/15/has-google-dumped-rss-alerts-or-not/
Priced services
The Times and Sunday Times– http://www.thetimes.co.uk/ http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/
Financial Times (priced for full access)– http://www.ft.com/
LexisNexis– http://www.lexisnexis.com/ – subscription service, prices on application
Factiva– http://www.factiva.com/ – subscription service, prices on application– also a pay as you go option
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Google Video
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Not the same as Youtube
Google Video
YouTube
☂ Docutu.be http://docutu.be/
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Blogs and Twitter
Many experts, academics, researchers, industry gurus have active blogs
Great way to tap into expert knowledge especially with new and innovative technologies and industries
Essential for competitive intelligence and reputation monitoring
Twitter up to the minute but skewed view of what is happening
Blogs – http://www.google.com/blogsearch/ or use click on More in the menu above your results and then Blogs
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Social media & professional networks
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LinkedIn.com
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UK Government Web Archive | The National Archives http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/webarchive/
Browse by category or choose your organisation from an A-Z listChoose the date of the archived version of the website you want to view
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UK Government Web Archive | The National Archives http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/webarchive/
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http://www.legislation.gov.uk/
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Wayback Machine http://www.archive.org/
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Free alerting services
Google email and RSS alerts are broken– do not alert you to everything that is new
– alerts sometimes ‘die’
– often bring up old material that you’ve already seen
– duplicate information
Email alerts becoming a rarity
RSS feeds on news sites often all or nothing
Need an RSS reader e.g. Netvibes, Feedly, FeedReader– Phil Bradley's weblog: 20 Alternatives to Google Reader
– http://philbradley.typepad.com/phil_bradleys_weblog/2013/03/20-alternatives-to-google-reader.html
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My own RSS reader – RSSOwl (desktop only)
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Paper.li - create your own newspaper
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Paper.li – keyword Biofuelshttp://paper.li/karenblakeman/1321447614
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Scoop.it
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Keeping up to date
Inside Search http://insidesearch.blogspot.com/
Official Google Blog http://googleblog.blogspot.com/
SearchReSearch : http://searchresearch1.blogspot.co.uk/
Search Engine Land http://searchengineland.com/
Search Engine Watch http://searchenginewatch.com/
Boolean Black Belt-Sourcing/Recruiting http://www.booleanblackbelt.com/
Karen Blakeman’s Blog http://www.rba.co.uk/wordpress/
Phil Bradley's weblog http://philbradley.typepad.com/
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