This guide comprises selected resources published by industry experts, news organizations, advocacy and professional groups, and academia. Many sites that have addressed this area of research are no longer free, have left the arena, and/or have changed their business model to target a specific business sector and attract paying clients to their respective services. This guide focuses on sites and services, on both the open and deep web, that researchers may currently access and use for tracking and monitoring purposes, as well as tools and techniques to leverage in their business intelligence work, that are either free or low fee based on data content parameters.
Accurint
http://www.accurint.com/
Accurint® is a LexisNexis® service that brings data to life. Accurint provides information products that allow organizations to quickly and easily extract valuable knowledge from huge amounts of data. These innovative products are made possible by integrating powerful technology, tens of billions of data records on individuals and businesses, and proprietary data-linking methods.
Beige Book
https://www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/beige-book-default.htm
Each Federal Reserve Bank gathers anecdotal information on current economic conditions in its District through reports from Bank and Branch directors and interviews with key business contacts, economists, market experts, and other sources. The Beige Book, published eight times per year, summarizes this information by District and sector. An overall summary of the twelve district reports is prepared by a designated Federal Reserve Bank on a rotating basis.
Better Management – Business Intelligence
https://www.sas.com/en_us/insights.html?FilterID=10
Business intelligence (BI) uses knowledge management, data warehouse, data mining and business analysis to identify, track and improve key processes and data, as well as identify and monitor trends in corporate, competitor and market performance.
BIme – Transform Data Into Meaningful Analysis
https://www.bimeanalytics.com/
“Anyone and everyone can be an analyst with BIME. Easily create datasets and create custom metrics, reports and dashboards – no SQL required. Features include: a) Google Analytics + AdWords For Marketing Teams – Measure campaign performance and ROI from your online ads to website; b) Salesforce + Zendesk for Sales and Support Teams – Track the entire user journey from prospect to customer to churn; and c) Redshift & BigQuery for Data Teams – Use BIME to query, analyze, and visualize everything in your data warehouse.”
BizMiner
https://www.bizminer.com/
The company pioneers online delivery of detailed industry analysis to small and large businesses and entrepreneurs through its local and national Marketing Plan Research Profiles, Financial Analysis Profiles, Area Sector Profiles, Target Market Area Scorecards Profiles, Franchise Profiles and Business Risk Index series. BizMiner’s proprietary research methodology tracks and analyzes the experience of over 18 million US business facilities, condensing millions of data points into the unique measures found in our profile series.
Biznar – Innovative Business Research Search Engine
http://biznar.com/biznar/desktop/en/search.html
Biznar is a free, publicly available business research site that uses advanced technology to return high quality results. Using state-of-the-art federated search technology from Deep Web Technologies, Biznar accelerates your research by returning the most relevant results from across the World Wide Web, including blogs, wikis, mainstream searches and deep web sources to one, easily navigable page. Each search is done in real-time, searching the sources you select as if you were entering the search term on each individual website yourself.
BizShark – Internet Business Search Engine
https://www.bizshark.com/
BizShark uncovers your competitors’ marketing strategies, finances, news, and more. BizShark brings you the latest business profiles, news, financials, web analytics, social footprint, marketing strategies, and other business information by searching across 50+ Internet business databases. BizShark searches and converts raw business data into 13 standard metrics to enable quick and easy business comparison.
Bots, Blogs and News Aggregators 2017
http://www.BotsBlogs.com/
A comprehensive site covering the resources for bots, blogs and news aggregators on the Internet including white papers and a video presentation. These areas are considered by some to be the future methods of information retrieval and information dissemination on the world wide web.
Brint.com Business Technology Knowledge Portal
http://www.brint.com/
Developing leading edge thinking and practice on contemporary business, information, technology and knowledge management issues to facilitate organizational and individual performance, success, and fulfillment.
Business Filings Databases — Updated – LLRX
https://www.llrx.com/2009/12/research-roundup-business-filings-databases-updated/
All 50 states make some level of corporate and business filings available online. In a few instances only limited information (such as name availability) is retrievable. The majority of the states, however, use their Web presence to disseminate a range of public business records — and most of them offer access at no charge. This update reflects changes that have been made in the previously listed databases.
Business Information on the Internet
http://www.rba.co.uk/sources/index.htm
These links will take you to a selection of key business information sites on the Internet and this resource has been created by Karen Blakeman. Details of changes to the listings are announced in Karen Blakeman’s blog.
BusinessIntelligence.com – The Resource For Business Intelligence
https://www.businessintelligence.com/
This site is part of the IT Network 365 that offers articles, news, media, research, papers, extracts, events, books, and exhibition business intelligence resources
Business Intelligence for Dummies Cheat Sheet
http://www.dummies.com/business/business-intelligence-for-dummies-cheat-sheet/
“Business intelligence process creates an environment for better decision-making. To make successful business decisions, you need to gain insight in business intelligence, follow the main steps of the key performance indicators (KPI) cycle, find the best source to store and process operational data, and assess and use standard business intelligence applications.”
Business Intelligence Network
http://www.b-eye-network.com/ T
The Business Intelligence Network™ and Resource Library delivers industry-based content hosted by domain experts and industry leaders. The Business Intelligence Network includes horizontal technology coverage from the most respected thought leaders in Business Intelligence, Business Performance Management, Data Warehousing and Data Quality. The Business Intelligence Network serves these communities with unparalleled industry coverage and resources.
Business Intelligence Resources 2018 Subject Tracer™
http://www.BIResources.info/
Business Intelligence Resources is a Subject Tracer™ White Paper Dataset Link Compilation created and authored by the Virtual Private Library and is constantly updated with Subject Tracer Bots (STB) monitoring the web and deep web for the latest information on business intelligence.
Business Intelligence: White Papers, Webcasts and Product Information
http://www.bitpipe.com/tlist/Business-Intelligence.html
A site offering white papers, webcasts and product information concerning all aspects of business intelligence.
Business Wire
https://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/
Business Wire is the leading source for full-text breaking news releases, multimedia and regulatory filings for companies and groups throughout the world.
CBS News MoneyWatch
https://www.cbsnews.com/moneywatch/
Free online – also via apps – Topics covered include Markets, Money, Work, Small Business, Retirement, Tech, Trending – and includes Video.
CEO Express
https://www.ceoexpress.com/home
CEOExpress.com is designed to be the executive’s interface to the Internet. The site’s peer editor recognizes that executives have precious little time to obtain all the information they require to conduct business. At the same time, much of the information that executives need is available on the Internet. CEOExpress takes all that information, and by employing expert human editors and “mind ergonomics,” pares it down to the 20% that is most critical and useful. That information is delivered to the user’s desktop in a clear, easy-to-use format.
ChangeTracker – Tracking Change In Washington
https://www.propublica.org/article/changetracker
ChangeTracker, an experimental new tool that watches pages on a) whitehouse.gov, b) recovery.gov and c) financialstability.gov so you don’t have to. When the White House adds or deletes anything— say a blog post, or executive order … ChangeTracker will let you know. The latest changes are on their page or sign up to get alerts sent to you. Each change links to a page that shows the different versions side-by-side. Text highlighted in red means it was removed, green means it was added.
Company Research Pathfinder from Rutgers University Libraries
https://libguides.rutgers.edu/companies
This Research Guide provides assistance in doing research in a variety of business and management topics, with descriptions of databases and hundreds of reference books in the collections of the Rutgers University Libraries. Links to more than 3,000 selected business and management-related Internet resources are included.
Competitive Intelligence – A Selective Resource Guide – Updated June 2017
https://www.llrx.com/archives/subject/competitive-intelligence-resource-guide/
Sabrina I. Pacifici’s completely revised and updated pathfinder focuses on leveraging selected reliable, focused, free and low cost sites and sources to effectively profile and monitor companies, markets, countries, people, and issues. This guide is a “best of list” of web, database and email alert products, services and tools, as well links to content specific sources produced by governments, academia, NGOs, the media and various publishers.
Competitive Intelligence Resources
http://CompetitiveIntelligenceResources.BlogSpot.com/
A comprehensive Internet MiniGuide link compilation of significant competitive intelligence resources and sites on the Internet authored and edited by the author of the annotated white paper.
Current Awareness Monitors, Alerts and Information Traps 2017
http://www.eCurrentAwareness.com/
A report listing the current awareness resources available on the Internet that will allow one to stay current in their profession, business and or special interest. With information overload the buzz it is now more important that ever before to create automated current awareness resources and this report list the very best available now on the Internet. This business intelligence report is authored by the author of this annotated white paper.
D&B Hoovers Company Search
http://www.hoovers.com/company-information/company-search.html
Search over 85 million companies. Some information is free (name of company, location, sales. links, ranking, key competitors) – most information is available for a fee.
Deep Web Research and Discovery Resources 2017
http://DeepWeb.us/
An article outlining the various resources available for finding information in the deep and invisible World Wide Web authored by the author of this annotated white paper.
Forbes Lists
https://www.forbes.com/lists/#5b4a2ce0370e
Track over 120,000 executives and members of the Forbes rich and celebrity lists. Customize free email alerts: receive updates on an individual’s title or compensation change, options exercised, or breaking news. Research public companies and executives with our in-depth, up-to-date people and company tear sheets. Get the latest news on people and companies in your tracker, including stories from Forbes.com and Forbes magazines.
FreshPatents
http://www.freshpatents.com/
The latest published US patent applications each week BEFORE the USPTO decision to grant/deny. Freely available innovative services like keyword monitoring, RSS feeds and browse by location. Learn about new ideas. New applications are published Monday. Dates listed are for the previous Thursday’s official USPTO publication date.
globalEDGE™ – Your Source For Global Business Knowledge
https://globaledge.msu.edu/
Created by the International Business Center at Michigan State University (IBC), globalEDGE™ is a knowledge web-portal that connects international business professionals worldwide to a wealth of information, insights, and learning resources on global business activities. Partially funded by a U.S. Department of Education Title VI B grant, globalEDGE™ is your source for global business knowledge.
Harvard Business School Baker Library Business Research Guides
https://www.library.hbs.edu/Find/Guides?limit=99999&offset=0&sort=&query=&spellcheck=&search_within=
Baker Library produces guides to help in the use of resources at Baker and beyond for business and career research. The list includes guides to general business topics, information on specific industries and specific course support projects that may be helpful in other contexts.
HitWise – Competitive and Search Intelligence for Online Advertising and Search
http://www.hitwise.com/
Hitwise helps marketers, agencies and brands across all industries track website behavior, understand their audience and keep tabs on their competition.
Hometown Locator
https://www.hometownlocator.com/
Community Profiles for 42,500 US cities, towns and ZIP code with census, demographic and income data, parks, schools, libraries, hospitals, airports, environmental conditions, local newspapers, media outlets, employment, maps, coordinates and aerial photos.
Internet Intelligence – Fuld & Company
http://www.fuld.com/institute-new
“The Fuld Institute for Competitive Strategy provides executives with critical insights to support strategic planning and corporate decision making. We produce strategic reports prepared by Fuld + Company consultants in collaboration with a global panel of senior executives across a wide span of industries.”
Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE)
https://www.ire.org/
Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) located at the Missouri School of Journalism provides educational services to reporters, editors and others interested in investigative journalism and works to maintain high professional standards.
ITtoolbox Business Intelligence
https://it.toolbox.com/tags/business-intelligence
The ITtoolbox offers business intelligence resources in the following content type categories: blogs, code exchange, faqs, groups, jobs, news, peer publishing, pr, research, and white papers.
Market Intelligence Resources
http://www.MarketIntelligenceResources.com/
This 193 page Professional Internet MiniGuide brings you the latest links and sources for market intelligence. WikiPedia defines Market Intelligence as: “Market Intelligence (MI) – information relevant to a company’s markets, gathered and analyzed specifically for the purpose of accurate and confident decision making in determining market opportunity, market penetration strategy, and new market development metrics.” The Market Intelligence Resources Professional Internet MiniGuide has all its links and sources listed alphabetically and broken down into categories that address the many facets of market intelligence for today’s business owner and/or entrepreneur.
Mergers and Acquisitions Business Research
http://www.masourceexpress.com/mergers-and-acquisitions
Mergers and Acquisitions Business Research offers the resources necessary for business intelligence required using their extensive listings of M&A research resources offering through independent sites on the Internet. The author of this annotated white paper is proud that they have used a number of his Subject Tracers as well as the Virtual Private Library in their resource collection.
NASD BrokerCheck: Check the Background of Your Investment Professional
https://brokercheck.finra.org/
NASD BrokerCheck should be your first resource tool to learn about the professional background, registration/license statuses and conduct of NASD registered firms and their registered brokers. NASD BrokerCheck was designed to be simple and efficient in its delivery of information. NASD makes information on securities professionals and firms available online and, in most cases, detailed report information is returned to you by e-mail within minutes of your request.
NewsIsFree
http://www.newsisfree.com/
NewsIsFree is a web site designed to let you access thousands of news sources with a powerful and flexible portal for browsing, indexing and publishing news headlines. NewsIsFree currently features 20679 news channels, ranging from high profile news sources, to very specific topic sites, to weblogs. Sources are gathered either from their syndication feed or by analysing the actual web pages. Sources are updated as often as every fifteen minutes, although actual update rate depends on how often each source changes. Each source is updated at least once a day.
NewsNow
http://www.newsnow.co.uk/h/
Automatically searching 19931 news sources every 5 minutes as of this authoring. Today NewsNow monitors breaking news in 15+ languages from thousands of the Internet’s most important online publications, including international, national and regional titles, newswires, magazines, press releases and exclusively online news sources. Their corporate services include online press cuttings, market intelligence, competitor tracking and web site and intranet content.
OneSource Online Business Information
http://www.onesource.com/
OneSource integrates business content from over 2,500 leading sources worldwide, optimizing it to meet the unique needs of sales, financial services, and professional services teams. OneSource is a division of infoUSA .
Orbis Directory
https://orbisdirectory.bvdinfo.com/version-20171213/OrbisDirectory/Companies
Get a free profile on a company or use your credit/debit card to buy more detailed reports.
PSFK Collaborative Trend Spotting Site
https://www.psfk.com/
PSFK is a community of trend spotters, futurists, forward-thinking-individuals and cool hunters in Fashion, Design, Advertising, IT, Government, Art, You-Name-It around the world. Sightings of trends are fed to a group of main site editors who then may or may not publish them on the site.
Public Records Online Directory
https://publicrecords.netronline.com/
The Public Records Online Directory is a Portal to official state web sites, and those Tax Assessors’ and Recorders’ offices that have developed web sites for the retrieval of available public records over the internet.
Search Systems Free Public Records Directory
http://publicrecords.searchsystems.net/
One of the largest directory of links to free public record databases on the Internet. Find business information, corporate filings, property records, unclaimed property, professional licenses, offenders, inmates, criminal and civil court filings, and much more. As of this authoring there are over 27,480 free searchable public record databases.
State Business Filings Databases – LLRX
https://www.llrx.com/2009/12/research-roundup-business-filings-databases-updated/
All 50 states make some level of corporate and business filings available online. In a few instances only limited information (such as name availability) is retrievable. The majority of the states, however, use their Web presence to disseminate a range of public business records — and most of them offer access at no charge.
The Center for Business Intelligence
http://www.cbinet.com/
Founded in 1994 in Boston, CBI Research, Inc. is dedicated to developing market-driven, unbiased conferences in pharmaceuticals/biotech, risk and insurance and managed care markets. CBI Research, Inc. offers conferences and summits that serve senior executives and government officials by providing a unique platform for highly focused content and presentation.
TheDeal
http://www.thedeal.com/
The Deal is a diversified media company dedicated to providing must-read financial news, commentary, data and services to corporate and financial dealmakers, their advisers and investors worldwide. They serve the global deal community by providing timely, accurate and useful information. They cut through the clutter by combining a sophisticated editorial voice with essential need-to-know insights characteristic of industry trade publications.
Wall Street Executive Library
http://www.executivelibrary.com/
A public directory that listed only the most relevant and useful business sites. The Web’s Best Business Sites with over 1450 content rich resources for an informed, intelligent perspective. The author of this annotated white paper has a number of his Subject Tracers™ listed in this library.
Webhose.io
https://webhose.io/?utm_source=omgili&utm_medium=link
“Tap into blog data feeds at scale We turn unstructured web content into machine-readable data feeds you can consume on demand.” (fee and free)