Surfing the Internet for business data
Surfing the Internet for business data
By Hendarsyah Tarmizi
The Jakarta Post
With the power of the Internet, you can access information on
thousands of companies around the world in almost all business
fields in a matter of seconds.
Online business directories offer more advantages than paper
directories. They are much more up-to-date. Unlike paper
directories, which are published every one to two years, the
online variety can be updated instantly.
In the developed world, online business directories have
become more popular with the business community. With the online
directories, readers can find the information they are looking
for much more easily. The data contained in the directories is
also presented in a user-friendly format, thus eliminating time-
consuming searches.
The directories are divided into three categories: The first
type is the global business directory, which lists global
companies with activities in more than two countries.
The second type is the regional directory listing global
companies with activities in more than two countries, while
finally there are country business directories, which list
companies in a particular country.
There are hundreds of websites that offer such complete
business references.
Multinational data provider Kompass Group, for example,
offers online directories, which give access to information on
1.6 million companies, 23 million key product and service
references, 3.2 million executive names and 744,000 trade and
brand names available in over 70 countries.
In the third quarter of last year alone, 30 million pages were
being offered on Kompass.com.
In Indonesia, online business directories are still less
popular than the paper ones. But the trend toward using online
directories is growing with the increase in the number of online
directory providers in the country.
In terms of services, the local online directories are still
relatively limited, only containing certain categories of
companies.
Below are some of the website addresses of local online
directory providers, which mostly offer information on companies
operating in certain fields.
Export-Import Indonesia's www.export-import-indonesia.com
offers a database of exporters, importers and foreign forwarders.
Travelmart Indonesia's www.travelmart.co.id gives access to
information on the country's travel companies.
Indonesia-Product's www.indonesia-product.com provides
directories on Indonesian industrial products.
Indonesia Furniture Inc's www.indonesia-furniture.com offers
directories of furniture companies in Indonesia.
Indonesia Yellow Pages' www.yellowpages.co.id offers
information on Indonesian companies.
Indonesia Companies' Indonesiacompanies.com gives access to
directories of local companies.
Indonesia Export's www.Indonesianexport.com offers a business
to business directory.
Trade Indonesia's www.tradeindonesia.com features a directory
of trade-related resources, events, travel and regional
information.
Indonesian Capital Market Links' www.
indonesianmarketlinks.net provides information on Indonesian
companies and links to the Indonesian capital markets.
Indonesia Net Exchange's indoexchange.com, offers information
on stock trading and directories of publicly listed companies.
Most of us are interested in the use of search engines to
track down websites. Knowing how to use them is a handy skill and
should be an important part of your business.
Here are some tips provided by Kompass.com on how to
effectively use online directories.
1. Know the difference between a search engine and a directory.
Pure search engines - such as Alta Vista (http://www.av.com -
create an instant index of the web: visitors can search through
this by typing in keywords that describe what they are looking
for. The search engine will then find matching web sites.
Search engines such as yahoo which operate as directories are
different from Alta Vista because they are generally compiled
through submissions by site owners. All sites are cataloged by
topic, and visitors "drill down" to find their topic of interest.
2. Learn how to use key words and phrases effectively.
Before beginning your search think about what you are looking
for. These will be your "keywords" or "phrases".
For example, if you're sourcing "plastic bolts", "CPVC" will
narrow the list very effectively.
3. Use boolean terms to refine your search.
Learn how to use boolean terms (and, nit) to help fine tune
your search. You can shorten these to + or - in many search
engines such as Alta Vista. Using these will
narrow your results down significantly.
For example:+plastic+bolts+europe-nylon (NB:put space between
words) instructs the search engine to find all pages that include
"plastic" "bolts" and "europe" but do not contain the word
"nylon."
4. Use the results to hone your search further
If the selection offered is too broad, you need to add more
terms to make it more specific and vice versa. Also, sift through
at least 50 results before starting another search.