NEED TO FIND SOMETHING ON THE INTERNET?

The Internet is composed of more than 100 million host computers and tons and tons of information. When we refer to the World Wide Web, we are referring to the graphical portion of the Internet. The key to doing effective research on the Internet is getting to the right information quickly. There are a number of excellent sites that will provide you with the "basics" of using the Internet and pointers on using Internet search engines to find the information you need. Some of these sites are included in this guide.

Getting Started on the Internet
http://www.imagescape.com/helpweb
A helpful and intelligent introduction to the Internet from the Imaginary Landscape team.

Internet Basics from A-Z
http://www.netforbeginners.about.com
Many helpful sections on this site, including tutorials.

Internet Tutorials
http://library.albany.edu/internet/
Collection of tutorials assembled and maintained by the University at Albany Libraries for topics from Basic Internet to Search Engines to Software Training.

Learn the Net: An Internet Guide and Tutorial
http://www.learnthenet.com/english/index.html
Multilingual guide offers a humane introduction to the basics of cyberspace.

Search Engines

The most popular search engines are:

All of these "general" search engines will yield different results given similar search keywords. This is because each search engine is organized differently and uses different databases. If your search results in too much information, look more closely at the advanced search options that are provided by many of the search engines. If you follow their instructions, you can effectively narrow your search.

There are also "specialized" search engines, such as:

NEED TO DO SOME BUSINESS RESEARCH?

Research in economics and business requires familiarity with a number of different kinds of sources: statistical, informational, and analytical. The researcher may need demographic data, sales figures, analysis of a trend, or up-to-date information on changes in a given industry. This guide provides leads to research tools for economics and business.

CEO Express
http://www.ceoexpress.com
This site offers links to a vast collection of business resources.

United States Corporate Information
http://www.corporateinformation.com/
This site provides information on publicly traded companies (companies that trade on one of the stock markets), privately held companies, regional-based sites (companies in one particular region), and sector-specific sites (companies within a particular sector or industry).

The Forbes 500 Top Private Companies
http://www.forbes.com
This list gives the top 500 private companies and their ranking. Click the link to the International 500. Then click individual company names to find more information and a brief write-up on the firm. Originally published in Forbes magazine.

Bizjournals
http://bizjournals.bcentral.com/
American City Business Journals Inc. is the nation's largest publisher of metropolitan business newspapers, serving 40 of the country's most vibrant markets.

Annual Report Service
http://www.prars.com/
The Public Register's Annual Report Service (PRARS) offers company financials, including annual reports and prospectuses on over 3,600 public companies free of charge to the U.S. investing public.

Hoovers Online
http://www.hoovers.com
Hoover's Online features links to news, lists, stock quotes, and other products, such as Hoover's Industry Snapshots (global industry overviews). Hoover's offers approximately 250,000 company profiles (company histories, strategies, market positions, major events, and other information) available via online subscription.

CorpTech Database
http://www.corptech.com/
This site lists 50,000 manufacturers and developers of high-tech products. This site also has lots of other demographic information and good search features.

NEED MORE BUSINESS INFORMATION?

This section contains sites that may also be of assistance in researching a private (or public) company. The following sites don't have corporate profiles, but they tell you interesting details about the company you are researching. Sites with raw data are often better research sources than sites that attempt to rank the "best" companies.

U.S. Patent and Trademark Database
http://www.uspto.gov/
Sometimes it is useful to know what (if any) patents a company has. This site will help you search, but remember that sometimes a patent might be in the individual inventor's name or perhaps in the name of a subsidiary. Of course, you can also check individuals' patents here.

Copyright Research
http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright
Research copyrights registered since 1978 at the Library of Congress.

RTK Net Environmental Databases
http://www.rtk.net
Provided by the Right to Know Network, this site offers various government databases about environmental issues that companies face. The searching takes a bit of getting used to, but there are help files available.

Occupational Safety & Health Administration
http://www.osha.gov
Get all Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) inspections and violations noted since 1972.

Federal Trade Commission
http:// www.ftc.gov
With this archive, you can search Formal Actions to see if the FTC has ever taken action against a company.

Federal Election Commission
http://www.fec.gov
Find out if a company or other organization has given "soft money," and to whom.

NEED TO DO SOME GENERAL RESEARCH?

NEED TO LOCATE A GOVERNMENT AGENCY?

NEED A JOB?

Career City
http://www.careercity.com
As its name implies, this site targets job seekers. The site provides a search engine for millions of job sites. So even if you aren't necessarily looking for a job, this might be a good place to find out what a particular company does. Descriptions vary in length.

Job Bank
http://www.ajb.dni.us
America's Job Bank is a partnership between the U.S. Department of Labor and the state-operated public employment service.

Occupational Outlook
http://stats.bls.gov/oco
U.S. occupations are featured in this information-rich resource from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It includes job duties, working conditions, training and education requirements, salary, and number of people employed in an occupation as well as a projection of the growth or decline in available positions.

INTERESTED IN SPORTS?

NEED TO CALL SOMEONE?

SuperPages
http://www.superpages.com
This site contains a yellow pages directory for the United States. You can select up to five business types to look up. It can display up to 100 business names, addresses, and phone numbers on each page. You can select one particular state, an area code, a Zip code, or a city.

InfoUSA
http://www.infousa.com
This site offers names, addresses, and phone numbers of millions of American businesses. Also provided for free is a personal credit rating (e.g., excellent, very good, good, etc). For $3 you can order a brief profile about a company-a sample has been provided for free.

WANT TO WATCH SOME TV?

WANT TO READ A NEWSPAPER?

WANT TO READ A MAGAZINE?

NEED A BREAK?