Searching for Business Information 

Where to Look for Information
Searching for information is the most popular online web-activity. Small businesses can search the web for information about competitors, new product and marketing ideas, and current news. They can also reuse searches to track their competitors or specific topics. The major search services include:

• Google is currently one of the best search engines and the only one that has a special search engine for federal government materials. It also offers hundreds of language and university-specific search services. It is the most popular search engine at this time with 67% of US searches in March 2008.
  
• Yahoo presents an exceptional array of services and benefits from using people rather than computers to design the directory categories. Yahoo has acquired several search engines including AltaVista. Yahoo has 20% of the US search market.
  
• Bing is Microsoft's MSN search and is the third ranked search engine with 7% of the US market. In May 2008 Microsoft added a cashback product search to help improve it's position. However, some vendors may inflate the cost of of an item before offering cashback. Always compare cashback prices with prices from other sources such as online department or big box stores, Amazon, or Pricegrabber.
  
• Ask ranks fourth with only 4% of the US market. Ask offers a nice array of search options and integrates images and reference information in its search results. The AskEraser is a unique feature that erases searches from the server as a privacy measure.
  

Google's searchbots have found more than a trillion unique pages and Google indexes a good portion of them. Search engines are responsible for less than 7% of the referrals to websites as more users rely on their bookmarks and other sources to lead them to the information they need.

Meta-search services rapidly search these and other services, discard duplicates, and present the results in an organized fashion. Popular meta-search pages include: MetaCrawler, Dogpile, and AskJeeves.

One of the problems with the current search engines is the relatively low level of overlap. Only about 35% of the items found by one search engine will be found by another. In order to conduct comprehensive searches, business researchers need to use multiple search engines or one of the meta-search services.

A study by Dogpile found that there was little overlap (3%) in the first page results of the same searches conducted on Google, Yahoo, and AskJeeves. This reflects the different rules search engines use to rank results. Because search engines depend on advertising, they normally show only 10 results per page. Increasing the number of results shown on the first page would raise the percentage of overlapping entries.

If you are going to be doing a lot of online searching, consider using specialized software, such as, WebFerret or Copernic Agent, that conduct searches in the background while you work on something else. Stumped by new Internet or ecommerce jargon? Try using Webopedia or visit Whatis.com. Webopedia's definitions are a bit easier for non-techies while WhatIs targets a nerdier audience. Both include links to related articles and websites. Other sources: Aside from the popular search engines there are sites that offer searchable access to specialized collections of information. For example, 411SmallBusinessFacts.com provides a searchable database of 2000 facts about American small business from the National Federation of Independent Businesses.

Enter a search term and press Go!

Brand Name Search and the Mobile Web
Search engines are finding that a growing number of searches are brand name searches where simply adding .com would take the searchers directly to the websites.

Folks search Google or Yahoo! for Facebook, YouTube, and even Sears not because they want more information about the organizations but as a navigational shortcut. Most users have discovered that bookmarks are fairly useless and it's simpler and much faster to use a search engine.

Search engines are even more important for the mobile web because typing a long url is too tedious. Search engines excel at finding mobile friendly pages too.

Brand marketers need to keep tract of the top search results for their brand and try to make sure that the right site is listed in the top ten results.

Basic Search Strategies
Web search services have improved immensely in the past couple of years. They index more sites, give more accurate results, and often suggest useful related topics.

If you take a little time to plan your searches, you will be more likely to find useful materials. The planning stage doesn't have to take long but it requires that you consider a number of factors, such as these:

1. Figure out what you need:
   • Is the web the best place to start your search?
   • What kind of information do you need?
   • What format should the information be in?
   • How much information do you need?
2. Use what you know:
   • Do you know who produces the information?
   • Do you have a website to start with?
   • Have you got the name of the company, publication, or author?
3. Decide where to search:
   • Would the Web or an online library catalog be the best place to start?
   • Should you begin with a meta-search engine, directory, comprehensive search engine, or niche directory? Which would be fastest? Which would result in the best material?
4. Do a trial run:
   • Do a quick search - be as specific as you can.
   • Stop on the first page of results.
5. Save the results:
   • Bookmark the search itself and key webpages.
   • Print and save the page.
6. Evaluate the results:
   • What looks good?
   • What terms are used in the summaries? Watch for synonyms.
7. Refine and repeat the search:
   • Modify your search terms.
   • Use a different directory or search engine.
8. Credit your sources:
   • Follow copyright "fair use" rules.
   • Use the proper citation format.
   • Provide a link to the page.
   • Provide a link to repeating the search.

Recommended resource: Common Craft Video: Web Search Strategies in Plain English