How to find information from Internet - Part X Searching Business Directories

We have discussed many tips and tricks in this series on how to extract the best out of a search engine. Today, we discuss a few traps or common mistakes, blunders and gaffes that happen very often.

Perhaps the biggest mistake that we often commit unwittingly is to search in wrong places. This week, let us see the alternatives if we are to find out brief information or contact details of a business, company or individual.

If you are looking for a business/company in North America

Instead of searching in AltaVista or Yahoo, try the following:

  • At Hand Network Yellow Pages http://www.athand.com This yellowpages site is jointly operated by several regional telecom companies, and provides access to both national and local business listings.
  • BigYellow Directory http://www.bigyellow.com Big Yellow's covers over 16 million business listings. 
  • BigFoot http://www.bigfoot.com Using name or location, search Bigfoot's extensive e-mail and white page listings. Web pages and yellow pages can also be searched. 
  • SuperPages.com http://yp.gte.net Over 11 million US businesses are listed in GTE's "Interactive Yellow Pages".
  • InfoSpace Yellow Pages , White Pages http://infospace.com/ Find businesses in the U.S. and Canada with InfoSpaceYellow Pages.
  • Switchboard http://www.switchboard.com Using Switchboard, you can find yellow page business listings by category and/or name.

Indian Yellow pages

For similar searching in India - a few options are:

Metro Telephone Directories

Telephone Directory of States

Other Yellow Pages

Wow ! That's a lot of information. And most of it is sure to remain outside general purpose search engines for a long long time. So, you know the options next time there is need for business directory search.

Related Links:

Source: FAIDA - Newsletter on Business Opportunties from India and Abroad Vol: 3, Issue 17 August 15' 2002

Author : Dr. Amit K. Chatterjee
(Amit worked in blue-chip Indian and MNCs for 15 years in various capacities like Research and Information Analysis, Market Development, MIS, R&D Information Systems etc. before starting his e-commerce venture in 1997. The views expressed in this columns are of his own. He may be reached at amit@infobanc.com )


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