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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Highlights: Business Information - key web resources
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Business Information: key web resourcesHighlights from the full presentation
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]
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/
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
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.
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
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
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.