untangling_the_web

DID: 4046925
UNCLASSIFIEDItTeR eFFl6IAL USE m~LY
Newspapers. Magazines. Journals. Newsgroups. 810gs
There is a lot of hard news, opinion, and old-fashioned gossip on the Internet about
companies and their goings-on ... new products, new partnerships, contracts,
lawsuits, you name it. Disgruntled employees may post to newsgroups or publish
blogs. In fact, people have been fired for leaking company secrets in blogs.
Obviously, the validity of this information ranges from very high to scandalously
poor, but in many cases researchers are piecing together a monochrome jigsaw
puzzle, so any bit of information may help.
Press Releases
These can be a great source of cutting edge information about companies. They
want to make money and, if they are public, sell stock, so they love to tell the world
of their successes. The two best ways to find press releases is using PRNewswire or
going to the horse's mouth (the company website-look for the magic words press
releases on the home page). PRNewswire has improved its search and I especially
recommend using the advanced search option. The PRNewswire site also lets you
select a specific region or country, so it's easier to find international information here
than at Yahoo.
PRNewswire
Yahoo Press Releases via PR Newswire
http://www.prnewswire.com/
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/
How to Research a Specific Country
In order to perform in-depth research on a particular country, it is a good idea to
have numerous sites bookmarked as general starting places for country-specific
Internet research. Some countries have a large web presence while others, for all
intents and purposes, are absent or have a very limited presence. For the latter
category (countries such as North Korea or Burma) you will have to rely largely on
"third party" sites, that is, webpages about the country. Be aware that expatriates,
exiles, or dissidents with large axes to grind created many of these. Third party
country pages are usually most useful as sources for links to other webpages, and
some are impressive in their size and complexity.
My best advice in beginning to research a specific country is to try to find the most
comprehensive country metasites, and this is not always easy. Good starting places
are university area studies departments. Many of these have country or regional
UNCLASSIFIEDHFOR OFFl6IAL liseeNty 411