Librarians – cautious, painfully analytical people that we are - are never exactly hasty in adopting new tools without evaluating them over time. Especially out there on the flash-in-the-pan Internet. So we were happy to be alerted to PCMag’s Top 100 Classic Web Sites, a listing of the best sites in several categories that have stood the test of time. We’d trust these sites to offer time-tested utility for finding reputable information online.

Of course, stereotypes are hurtful, so bleeding-edge librarians will be happy to pass along the fact that PCMag has another list: Top 100 Undiscovered Web Sites. We’d trust these sites to be worth a look.

Whether you’re cautious or adventurous – or a librarian or not – these lists at least provide a fun Friday diversion. Have a good weekend!

(thanks, Scott)

Maybe you’re hoping to sell into a big business. Maybe you’re applying for a new job. Maybe you’re trying to find operating statistics on a competitor. Or maybe you’re just curious about your friendly neighborhood conglomerate. In any case, there’s a wealth of enlightening information to be found on public companies via the Securities and Exchange Commission, and you can get it for free online.

Public companies, as you know, sell shares of their stock to anybody interested in buying them. Because their shares are open to the public, these companies have to make certain financial information publicly available. They file this info with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the SEC houses it.

You can search these SEC holdings for free with EDGAR. This database is a primary source, and lists everything a company files – which is often confusing, misleading, overwhelming, and terrifying. But still, there’s good information to be had here, if you know where to look.

So where should you look?

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It’s fairly easy to track down statistics on how much money people spend on particular types of products and services. But these days, (especially with the dollar’s value being what it is) time seems to be becoming the more valuable commodity. So how much time do your customers spend using your product or service? That can be a more difficult question to answer. A good place to start, though, is the American Time Use Survey. From the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Time Use Survey looks at broad activities, from lawn and garden care to child care; from housework to work work; and from watching television to exercising. Use this data for feasibility studies, marketing purposes, or just to see how the average American’s day is broken up. Is there room for your product or service? Can it help your customer save increasingly valuable time? 

If you’ve ever been to Quantcast.com, you know the site gives traffic statistics and site user demographics for specific Web sites. A search on jjhill.org shows that our home page is pretty heavily visited by women between the ages of 45 and 54. It also says that a huge percent of visitors have a graduate degree and make between 0 and $30,000 per year. That’s right: librarians. Quantcast also notes that the ethnicity of jjhill.org visitors is off the charts for "Other."

Admittedly, this seems a bit shady. Still, I can’t help but pass along a recent beta addition to Quantcast that lets you build a list of Web sites that attract particular types of visitors. If you’re buying ads online, use this tool to identify targeted sites. If you’re researching a target audience, use the tool to learn more about where that audience spends their attention online.

From quantcast.com, just click the Advanced Search button and sign up for a free account. While I wouldn’t base a business plan solely on Quantcast’s data, it’s an interesting way to while away a Friday afternoon.   

(Source: Read Write Web)

All right, truthfully, it’s not really all free online. For very current and very specific business research, you’ll probably have to turn to premium research databases like those available to HillSearch members and, in varying degrees, at your local public library. But there is still quite a wealth of business research available for free on the Internet… if you know where to look. If you don’t, well, that’s what the Hill Library is for.

We bring together the best free online business sources in the BizToolkit. Click Free Access and check out the Industry Research, Demographics, and Market Research options in the main drop-down menu for starters. By way of example, here’s a report I drummed up – using only free online sources – on the Pet Food industry.

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Ask.com is, as you know, a search engine. They’re not as popular as Google, but they’ve done some interesting things with search technology and helping people to refine their searches. Check out an example of Ask search results on a search for James J. Hill. Note especially the left-hand column, where one can narrow, expand, or find related info. Also the images, encyclopedia entries, news, and blog links along the right-hand column. 

Back at the end of February, I saw an article at Silicon Alley Insider describing how Ask was going to abandon their search technology, called Teoma, and just bolt the Ask logo over a Google search engine. It sounded crazy, so of course I wanted to post about it – but it fell off my radar.

Then the other day, an AP article appeared discussing recent cuts at Ask. This article said that Ask was abandoning its efforts to compete with Google, and was instead going to focus attention on helping married women in the southern and Midwestern states find information on recipes, hobbies, and health. Crazier still! I totally have to blog about this, I thought. But didn’t.

Then yesterday, I saw this well-reasoned and completely sensical article featuring quotes from an Ask.com spokesperson. Directly from the horse’s mouth: Ask is not getting rid of its Teoma search engine in favor of Google, and the idea that Ask is “going to become a women’s site is just plain wrong.” They are focusing on their core group of users, and they’re trying to understand how these users use their product, but that’s not crazy.

In fact, that seems like a pretty good strategy.

So through the awesome power of blog procrastination, what started off as a “WTF?” post turned into a little note about how every business would probably benefit by following Ask’s lead and paying closer attention to their core customers.

Who are your core customers? Are you paying attention to them?

A recent comment on this blog post brought an issue that’s been percolating to the forefront of my mind: Can you trust information that you find online?

The short answer is “kind of.” Here’s the longer answer.

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Here at the Hill Library we subscribe to hundreds and hundreds of highly specialized industry trade journals. There are few better tools for learning more about a specific industry.

Every time we get a new issue of one of these trade journals, we browse through it, looking for so-called special issues. A special issue can be a state of the industry report, a trend analysis, a buyer’s guide, a top company listing... Basically any kind of special report.

We keep track of these special reports in the Special Issues Index. This tool can help folks here at the library get access to our trade journal collection. But what if you’re not here in St. Paul?

There is a document delivery option (free for HillSearch members), but we’ve also gone through and looked for online editions of these reports at trade journal Web sites. If they exist, we’ve linked to them.

In addition, we regularly scour the Web for free special reports from government and trade sources. These are labeled in the Special Issues Index as “Online Only.” We just dumped a couple dozen new Online Only reports into the Index, including:

• Life Insurance Industry 2008 Outlook
  
• The “Average” 62-Year Old Boomer
  
• Effects of Gasoline Prices on Driving Behavior and Vehicle Markets 
  
• Pet Ownership Statistics
  
• American Wind Energy Association 2007 Market Report
  
• Geographic Trends Among Same-Sex Couples
  
• Future Trends in Animal Agriculture
  
• What’s Hot & What’s Not: Chef Survey
  
• Networked Nation: Broadband in America 2007