| WELCOME to the August 2005 edition of The Information Advisor's BestBizWeb Eletter! Here is our monthly review of the best business research sites we've come across: |
SITE: Free Government Information
URL: http://freegovinfo.info/node/174
CATEGORY: Government Information
PURPOSE: This site promotes knowledge, understanding, and access to citizens’ ability to freely access U.S. federal and state government information.
FEE/FREE: FREE/FEE
SOURCE CHECK: Free Government Information was created by four university librarians: Three are from the University of California–San Diego; the other is from the Alaska State Library.
OUR VIEW: While there are several nice sections to this site, the one that we think makes it particularly noteworthy is its regularly updated directory of podcasts from the government. Free Government Information currently lists and links to federal podcasts such as the President’s Weekly Radio Address, Science@NASA, NOAA (National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration), and Department of State speeches, as well as state and local government podcasts covering governors’ addresses, a municipality’s “town talk,” and more. Consider this site if you want to locate free podcasts—as well as other free information—from federal, state, and local governments.SITE: Copyright Documents Database
URL: http://www.copyright.gov/records
CATEGORY: Government Information/Intellectual Property
PURPOSE: This site provides a quick and simple system for searching three groupings of copyright databases from the federal government: books, music, films, sound, and multimedia; periodicals, magazines, journals, and newspapers; and documents. The database’s archive goes back to Jan. 1, 1987, and is updated weekly.
FEE/FREE: FREE
SOURCE CHECK: The site was created by the United States Copyright Office, the official federal agency that grants and records all copyrights.
SITE: Allwhois
CATEGORY: Intellectual Property
PURPOSE: Allwhois allows users to search the “Whois” (ownership and contact information) from the major Internet domain name registration firms. It automatically locates the appropriate “Whois” database server for a particular domain name, queries that database for information about that domain name, and returns all available data. In addition, a domain name availability check is performed.
FEE/FREE: FREE
SOURCE CHECK: Allwhois is produced by MarkMonitor, a well-known provider of what it calls “corporate identity management” services for Global 2000 corporations.
OUR VIEW: There are many different places you can turn to on the Net to perform a “Whois” search, but a lot of them are hard to use, messy, or incomplete. Allwhois is our current favorite choice for a clean, reliable, and comprehensive search of the various Whois databases. One caution, though, which is true when searching any Whois database, is that an increasing number of domain owners are providing less complete and less accurate contact information. Consider this source when want to learn the names and contact information of an Internet site domain or to see if a particular domain is available.SITE: China Business—Research Guide #30
URL: http://gethelp.library.upenn.edu/guides/business/china.html
CATEGORY: International Business Research
PURPOSE: This site identifies selected directories, company profile databases, news sites, statistical sources, market research resources, legal, and other information resources for doing business research on China.
FEE/FREE: FREE
SOURCE CHECK: This site was created by Terese Terry, a reference librarian at the University of Pennsylvania’s Lippincott Library.
OUR VIEW: Business in China is a very hot topic, but good, reliable information is hard to come by. We can think of no better way to take a first stab at identifying useful business information resources on China than by checking Terry’s own selections, as she has proven to be an outstanding filter for locating top-notch business information sources on a variety of business topics. Consider this site if you are doing business research on China and need some direction on how to begin. Yahoo! to the Max: An Extreme Searcher Guide by Randolph Hock, provides background, content knowledge, techniques, and tips to help Web users take full advantage of Yahoo!’s most valuable offerings — from its portal features, to Yahoo! Groups, to unique undiscovered tools, and much more. To order, contact Information Today, Inc. at (609) 654-6266 or go to http://books.infotoday.com/books/yahootomax.shtml. 272 pages/softbound. $24.95. |
 Choosing and Using a News Alert Service by Robert Berkman identifies, compares, and evaluates dozens of free, inexpensive, and fee-based news alert services. Find out how these e-mail-based tools work and which ones will work best for you. Offers clear advice on how to get the most out of your alert service investment. Detailed appendix compares specific news source coverage for the major alert service players. To order, contact Information Today, Inc. at (609) 654-6266 or go to http://books.infotoday.com/books/newsalertsvc.shtml. 127 pages/softbound, $79.95. |
SITE:The Wall Street Journal Video Center
URL: http://online.wsj.com/public/page/0,,8_0000,00.html
CATEGORY: News Sources
PURPOSE: This site provides video commentary from journalists and analysts from The Wall Street Journal, as well as other business media sources such as CNBC, on breaking news and timely business features.
FEE/FREE: FREE
SOURCE CHECK: The Wall Street Journal Video Center is part of the Wall Street Journal Online site published by Dow Jones & Company.
OUR VIEW: While there are only a limited number of selected video news and feature stories on this site, it does represent the availability of free quality video from the premiere provider of business information. Consider this site if you want to watch a broadcast of what some of The Wall Street Journal’s reporters and analysts are saying about hot business topics in the news.| The publisher of The BestBizWeb Eletter also publishes The Information Advisor |
 The Information Advisor newsletter specializes in reviews and side-by-side comparisons of key information vendors, databases, and business sites such as Dialog, LexisNexis, D&B, Hoover’s, Standard & Poor’s, Investext, Euromonitor, ProQuest, Disclosure, and others. Request your FREE print or PDF sample issue today: Send an e-mail to custserv@infotoday.com or fax your request to (609) 654-4309. If you are pleased with the FREE issue, simply process the invoice when it arrives, or write Cancel on the invoice and return it to us. |
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We are particularly interested in hearing about any sites you'd like to nominate. If we use your submission, your name will be entered in our monthly drawing for a $25 Amazon.com gift certificate. Please send comments to editor Robert Berkman (rberkman@infotoday.com).
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