searching for reliable business information: free versus fee
TRANSCRIPT
Searching for reliable business information: free versus fee
VOGIN-IP-lezing, 9 March 2017 Amsterdam Public Library
Karen BlakemanRBA Information Services
http://www.rba.co.uk/
twitter.com/karenblakeman
Free versus fee
Price is no guarantee of quality
Official data and information versus the rest
Official data and information – changing definitions (statistics), changing legislation (company information)
Third party services repackaging free information - how do they make their money?
Is Google really free?
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2016 Google Tracker: Everything Google is working on for the new year | Ars Technica http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/01/2016-google-tracker-everything-google-is-working-on-for-the-new-year/
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FAQ: All about the Google RankBrain algorithm http://searchengineland.com/faq-all-about-the-new-google-rankbrain-algorithm-234440
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Google (and Bing) personalises results
Quickest way to “de-personalise” results is to use private browsing
Chrome - New Incognito window Ctrl+Shift+NFireFox Ctrl+Shift+PInternet Explorer Ctrl+Shift+POpera Ctrl+Shift+N
Will not remove country personalisation, does not hide who you are or your IP address
Not search engine specific, built into the browser
Location of Incognito and private browsing on mobile devices varies
NEVER trust Google’s facts, quick answers or knowledge graph
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No source given
No source given
[ NOTE: Wikipedia has updated its article and now shows the correct height]
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Google automatically looks for variations on your search terms and drops terms from your search
To force an exact match and inclusion of a term or phrase in a search prefix it with ‘intext:’
memorial garden intext:penryn heritage trail
Use Verbatim (Woord voor woord) to search for all of your terms without any variations or omissions (but not reliable – may have to combine intext: and Verbatim)
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Google Verbatim
Verbatim – Woord voor woord
filetype: - works in most search engines
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
electric cars forecast europe filetype:pdf
electric cars forecasts europe filetype:ppt OR filetype:pptx
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site: command to search within a type of site or individual sitesite:hsbc.com “global oil supply” fustier
Date - Tools (or Search Tools), Any time (Elke periode) and select an option (Note: Custom range (Aangepaste periode) not available for mobile users)
Date – Tools, Elke periode
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Get it right!
Do NOT capitalise the first letter of commands –all lower case
Do NOT insert a space after the colon of a command. If you do Google will treat the command as a searchable word.
Plus (+) sign before a word to force an exact match was discontinued in October 2011
Tilde (~) for synonyms – discontinued June 2013
The asterisk * is a placeholder for terms in a phrase e.g. “solar * panels”. It is NOT a truncation symbol.
Google has NEVER supported full nested Boolean search. But you can use OR for alternative terms and the minus sign before a term to exclude documents containing that term
Look beyond GoogleSearching for a paper by HSBC: Global oil supply. Will mature field declines drive the next supply crunch? Kim Fustier, Gordon Gray, Christoffer Gundersen, Thomas Hilboldt
Alternative search tools to try
Bing http://www.bing.com/ Advanced Operator Reference [Slightly out of date] https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff795620.aspx
Yandex http://www.yandex.com/
DuckDuckGo http://www.duckduckgo.com/
eTools http://www.etools.ch/
Carrot2 Clustering Engine http://search.carrotsearch.com/carrot2-webapp/search
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Foam tree
Free versus fee business information resources
Company information
Free
Search one company at a time usually by name only
Display/report options limited, service defined chart options
No peer group/sector analysis
Foreign company information usually in the local language
Fee
Search for groups of companies multi-criteria search
Usually a range of reporting and charting options e.g BvD
Peer group/sector analysis sometimes available
Translation services may be available
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Company information free versus fee
Free – information and data provided usually as filed, e.g. official registers
Priced – accounts may be harmonised (e.g. length of reporting year, databases covering several countries may standardise heading, currency conversion)
Advantage – can search across multiple countries
Disadvantage - may need to see original documents (does the service provide this?)
Free services – elements of their service may not always be available
Statistics, industry and market data
Free
Government statistics and reports
Anonymous aggregated data
Industry overviews
Executive summaries of priced market research
Press releases, news stories, local news
Trade bodies, professional associations, trade press
Fee
Detailed information on trends and market shares
Forecasts
Named companies
Brand names and market share
Detailed rankings
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Free open, official data
Raw data, can be large files
Format and structure variable
Usability “as is” often poor
Usually needs cleaning
Tools needed to analyse and present the information
Companies House daily bulk data files
http://download.companieshouse.gov.uk/en_accountsdata.html Bulk data - large daily files available as zipped filesNo support provided – you’re on your own!
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Companies House free data
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Each file within the zipped file is a separate document. Note the uninformative file names!
What we should but don’t always do
Statistics, and especially, official data - coverage and scope change over time so check the notes and definitions
Take care when comparing data from different countries
http://www.google.com/publicdata/Google Public Data Explorer - minimum wage Europe
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What we should but don’t always do
Statistics, and especially, official data - coverage and scope change over time so check the notes and definitions
Take care when comparing data form different countries
Viewpoint from other countries (use country versions of tools, translate search terms)
Click on links in results, Facebook/Twitter links and read the full article – content may be different from the headline, misleading or a parody/spoof
