Search and Research: Five Web Favorites

By Chris Roush
Feb. 26, 2008

Although I am old enough to vividly remember what it was like to research and write stories without the ability to check facts using the Internet, I’m still amazed that many business journalists today still underutilize this great tool.

Let’s face it, the Internet has revolutionized business journalism. Before the Web, there was no easy way to get SEC filings of public companies unless you paid a firm $25 to go to the SEC’s offices in Washington to make a copy. Before the Web, reporters actually had to leave the newsroom to check public records like Uniform Commercial Code files and fictitious name licenses at the courthouse.

I know, I know. It’s hard to believe. There was a time before the Internet.

But I’ve recently run across a surprising number of what I call the “Internet illiterate” at business desks across the country. Oh, they know how to “do the Google,” as President Bush so eloquently put it. But when it comes to really manipulating the Internet’s search functions and databases, they’re not utilizing this great tool to its fullest potential.

So, here are my current top five favorite research or search functions on the Internet:

1. The word search function at the SEC Web site: This function allows you to search the last four years of ALL company filings with the SEC for specific phrases, like “personal use of corporate aircraft,” a handy one during the upcoming proxy season. Want to know what companies are being investigated by the SEC? Try “informal inquiry” and “formal inquiry” in the search function.
2. The Google news alerts function: I freely admit that I am a geek and have about 40 phrases in the news alert function. Any time a Web site or a news story relating to one of those phrases appears on the Internet, I get an automatic e-mail alert with the link. You can do the same. To keep track of a company or a CEO, put their name into the news alert function and sit back as the stories come to.
3. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office: This site is a great way to find stories that the companies on your beat don’t want you writing. Businesses ALWAYS file about six to nine months in advance the names of new products they’re about to unveil, or file patents for new inventions that will result in those products. (Note that the link here is for a trademark search. Go to www.uspto.gov to search for patents.)
4. The company name and “resume” search. It’s so simplistic that it’s brilliant. Type in the name of a company that you cover – in quotation marks and then add “and ‘resume’” into Google or Yahoo search engines. And voila, you have dozens of people who once worked for the company, which are always handy to have around when you’re writing on deadline. Here’s what I got when I searched “Walt Disney Co.” and “resume.” Three of the first five look like former employees to me.
5. Real estate records for the entire country. Click on the state you want, then click on the county and begin searching. My students take great pleasure in looking up the home values of all of their professors. For you, the business journalist, you can check out a CEO’s home or see if a company is buying up a lot of real estate in a certain area, all while sitting at your desk.

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Copyright © 2008 Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism