Free Business and Industry Information on the Web

Citation

Adams, M. (2002), "Free Business and Industry Information on the Web", Program: electronic library and information systems, Vol. 36 No. 1, pp. 53-54. https://doi.org/10.1108/prog.2002.36.1.53.5

This book consists primarily of lists of free business and industry Web sites. It has a UK slant, in terms of listing business sites in the UK, and assisting exporters to other countries. The intended readership is not specified, but its title indicates the kind of individuals and information professionals who would benefit by reading it.

The author justifies the book by citing research which shows that only a minority of people are able to find the information they seek on the Web.

There is a fairly lengthy, comprehensive introduction, which would repay time spent reading it, because it provides hints about the most productive methods of searching, ways of evaluating the information retrieved (particularly important when dealing with free information), and the most helpful search engines to use.

The main part of the book consists of reviews of the business and industry sites themselves. The chapters deal with finding information on portals; regions; industry (including individually named industries); finance and investment; UK exporting; business news; and biographical information.

For each Web site cited, the author gives the name of the site, the URL, the provider and a description, varying in length from a couple of sentences to a full paragraph. Each site was checked by the author.

The remaining chapters outline how to personalise Web pages, and how to keep up to date with developments. This is especially useful, since the Internet is so fluid and changeable, and information professionals in particular need to find ways of keeping track of changes and developments.

One of the benefits of the book is how well it is indexed. It has an alphabetical list of organisations and providers and a subject index, both of which refer to individual or multiple entry numbers in the text. It also has a brief glossary. The index is not 100 per cent accurate (for example, Accountancy refers to entry 45 instead of to 46 and 47) but is useful for quick reference.

Because the main part of the book simply gives information under each heading, it could be used by busy information professionals to answer such enquiries as “Where can I find an introduction to industry X?” or “Where should I look for news articles on company Y?” A book with more narrative would be more likely to be shelved than be kept on a desktop.

One of its strengths is that it gives details of prime sites in each area. This helps with the continual problem of retrieving too many sites in a search. The phrase “information overload” has never been more relevant than now, when Web sites are multiplying daily.

Many of the sites are those set up for professionals within given sectors (for example, just‐drinks, “the premier beverage industry portal”, or propertybull, “for people who are active in the UK property sector”). Again, this is helpful in saving researchers time spent in researching a subject new to them.

Many descriptions do not mention whether there are links from the prime sites. This would be useful information, as sometimes it can be helpful to be drawn into a Web of related links; this is different from the aimless wandering which a book like this exists to help its readers to avoid.

The principal benefit of the book is that all the sites are wholly or mainly free, and the author does mention when a site has some subscription‐only sections. It remains to be seen whether in the future providers will be quite so willing to provide such informative sites free of charge, but in the meantime a book such as this is a very useful means of knowing on to which Web sites it is worth clicking.

The author describes the Internet as “one of the biggest time‐wasters ever invented”. He claims that someone may want to go back to it repeatedly after having wasted several hours in fruitless searching. His description was almost in terms of the compulsion of gambling – surely next time I will hit a lucky streak?

Those of us who do not have hours to spare (or gamble) in searching for information will appreciate this book, because it removes some of the gambling element – our searches can be purposeful and quick, with more than a chance of a jackpot at the end!