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By Donna Fryer

It has been said that ‘You can find everything on the Internet'. But what happens when you are trying to locate information about individuals? In July 2008, Google announced that it was aware of 1 trillion Web sites. This is an enormous, ground breaking figure. Around the same time, there was an announcement that some ex-employees of Google had formed a new company and were offering a new search engine, Cuil. According to the company website in December 2008, Cuil searches more pages than anyone else: ‘three times as many as Google and ten times as many as Microsoft'. What an overwhelming amount of information to sort through! This covers only search engines results. Social Media searching is a whole other animal. All this information can make your head spin!

Even though I am a big fan of starting research on the Web - in fact my website, www.SearchitRight.com, even offers training modules of ‘Finding People Information on the Web and Web 2.0' - there are inherent problems with only using the Web. When I perform research projects, I realise that there are several myths about just using the Web only to do any kind of research. I often find the information to be unreliable, inaccurate, outdated, badly formed for output, not organised, lacking in search parameters, with inconsistent search terms, and the process can be time consuming.

This is not to say that the Web shouldn't be used, but it should be used with caution.

Going back to the days when things were simpler and you could rely on only having to know search parameters in fee-based databases, searchers need to keep in mind that database searching is often a better alternative to Web research and we need to reacquaint ourselves with the ‘Big Three' (Factiva, Dialog, and LexisNexis) fee-based database offerings. In many instances, people information can be ‘user-generated', skewing its accuracy. Often the fee-based databases have a higher instance of accuracy because the information comes from authoritative source material.

The ‘Big Three' and People Information

Below, listed in no particular order, are various tips to help you find accurate, organised and authoritative information on people through Factiva, Dialog and LexisNexis:

Searching People Information in Factiva.com

Factiva.com is a powerful research tool providing access to a deep archive of leading business news and information. A global product with content in 22 different languages, the Factiva.com source set represents multiple types of publications, such as influential newspapers, magazines, newswires and media transcripts. It also includes top news and business web sites, blogs and audio content. Biographical sources include CFO Magazine, Current Biography and The Wall Street Transcript.

A benefit of searching premium services like Factiva.com is the ability to access sources not available on the free Web. For sources that are on the free Web, often the archive is not as deep as that available in Factiva.com. Access to this authoritative content makes it easy to find reliable information when searching for a person, or monitoring customers and competitors.

Using the Free-Text Box

A direct way to search for a person in Factiva.com is to click on the Search Builder tab and enter the name into the free-text box. You will retrieve any article that contains that individual's name. However, you may want to use some of the advanced features available in Factiva.com that will allow you to create a more precise search. For example, applying Factiva Intelligent Indexing^TM will help to focus the search results.

Using Factiva Intelligent Indexing^TM

Factiva Intelligent Indexing is a Dow Jones' patented and proprietary indexing scheme. Company, Subject, Industry and Region indexing terms have been applied across all Factiva.com content in order to surface the most relevant information. With a single click, this hierarchical indexing scheme allows you to select broad indexing terms or drill down to choose a more focused term.

Typing Timothy Geithner, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of NY, in the free-text box will yield thousands of articles that contain the name Timothy Geithner. Without further qualification, some of the articles retrieved will be false hits. To reduce the possibility of false hits, adding indexing terms, such as the Industry indexing term Banking/Credit, will narrow the results so that only articles targeted to the banking and credit industry and Timothy Geithner are retrieved.

FIG. 1

To locate biographical profiles of people in the news, try the People Profile indexing term.

This term will locate profiles of key management personnel, as well as biographical information about deceased individuals. Simply select the People Profile indexing term and type a name into the free-text box. When searching for biographical information, you may want to change the date range to ‘All Dates' and choose the ‘Relevance' option for sorting your results. The articles that have the most mentions of the person searched will be presented first.

Using Connectors and Proximity Operators

Remember that names can be written in different formats. Factiva.com supports several proximity operators and commands that will retrieve relevant articles, no matter how the person's name has been spelled.

In the search string below, using the proximity operator w/2 will retrieve articles where the name may include a middle initial. The truncation symbol * is used to retrieve articles where the name is written as Tim or Timothy and the atleast5 command will assure that multiple mentions of Geithner will appear in the article.

(((t or timothy) w/2 geithner) or tim* geithner) and atleast5 geithner





FIG. 2


To see a description of the commands and proximity operators supported by Factiva.com, click the Examples link on the Search Builder screen.

It's worth noting that, in addition to Factiva.com, Dow Jones's Business & Relationship Intelligence products also help you easily find and connect to executives. These solutions use sophisticated extraction and mapping technologies to collect information from millions of Web sites about people, products, companies and news. Dow Jones's social networking tools help readers navigate easily from an article to in-depth information about executives and companies, and then immediately see how they connect to every executive and company referenced in the article in just a few seconds.


For more information about Dow Jones Factiva products, visit www.factiva.com.


Searching People Information in Dialog.com

Whether you want to find experts in a subject area, identify employees for new positions, build a profile of an executive, locate details on a potential business partner or target a wealthy philanthropist, Dialog has the sources and search aids to make that possible - all in one place.

Dialog's Breadth and Depth of Content

Dialog databases contain publications from around the world that can help you find biographical information. Trade journals and newspapers, in particular, are rich mines of data on people. For example, trade journals found in databases such as Trade & Industry Database^TM or Business and Industry^TM often have sections devoted to the ‘movers and shakers' in an industry. Newspapers profile local celebrities from all sectors. Dialog NewsRoom, a mega news file, contains over 12,000 news sources from local areas, regions and throughout the world.

Newspapers from specific geographic regions also help you focus your search. Directory databases, such as Marquis Who's Who and Biography Master Index, contain a large number of biographical profiles. In TFSD Ownership Database and Thomson Financial Insider Trading Monitor, you can even find details on the common stock holdings of corporate insiders, company board members or officers, including individual stock transactions, and shareholders who own over ten percent shares in public companies.


Because of Dialog's breadth of content, you can find experts or specialists for almost any subject area. Sample content databases include: MEDLINE® for biomedical literature or Ei Compendex® for engineering data. These databases provide titles, journals and authors, often with contact information, who are writing the important literature in their fields. Other databases, such as SciSearch®: A Cited Reference Database and Social SciSearch®, offer authors and identify those who have cited articles written in the sciences and social sciences. By checking cited references, you can see how important articles are considered by other writers in a specific field of study.


Dialog has also made it easy to search its extensive content by collecting similar databases into categories. For example, in the PEOPLE category, you can search all the databases (e.g. b people) or choose just a few files (e.g. b 148, 88, 47). The PAPERS category contains all US newspapers and the NEWSWIRES category has newswires worldwide. Dialog's subject categories cover virtually every subject area from aerospace (AEROSPAC) to the chemical industry (CHEMBUS) to medicine (MEDICINE) to water and aquatic sciences (WATER).


Search Features and Techniques

Dialog's extensive indexing and special features enable you to search for personal names easily and quickly. The following examples illustrate Dialog techniques and rich indexing.





FIG. 3

EXPAND; KWIC

One basic technique is to use Dialog's EXPAND command to view the named person index of a database (e.g., nm=bernanke or na=bernanke).

Then SELECT the name(s) from the index list that Dialog displays.





FIG. 4


Review the results using Dialog's KWIC format so that you can see a 30-word window around your search terms. This gives you an idea about the article before printing out completely.

?s s1 and econom?
S2 1614 S1 AND ECONOM?

?t s2/6,k/1 from each

Many excellent databases, such as PR Newswire, lack a personal name index. You can then conduct a free-text search using proximity connectors (N) or (2N) (e.g. select paul(2n)krugman). This technique allows you to select the first name within a few words of the last name to retrieve the person, even if middle initials are used. If too many hits are retrieved, you can modify the search by adding a company name or the industry or area of subject expertise of the person (e.g. select peter(2n)rowley and dames/co).

FIG. 5


FREE TEXT with PROXIMITY
This technique allows you to select the first name within a few words of the last name to retrieve the person, even if middle initials are used.

If too many hits are retrieved, you can modify the search by adding a company name or the industry or area of subject expertise of the person (e.g., select paul(2n)krugman and economy).

Dialog also offers rich, targeted indexing to help narrow a search.





FIG. 6


TARGETED INDEXING

You can limit your search to certain parts of a document, for example: title /TI, lead paragraph /LP, named person /NM or /NA and descriptor /DE (e.g. select s1/ti,de,lp,na,nm). Moreover, special indexing for article type (AT=) or document type (DT=) lets you qualify the name search to pull up articles that have been indexed as "biography" or "interview" (e.g. dt=biography).

Another search tool from Dialog is the RANK command that extracts and analyses \\





FIG. 7


RANK

If you conduct a search on Tourette's syndrome and rank the author name (e.g. RANK AU), the command extracts all the authors from the set you have created, analyses the set to determine the author that appears the most, and displays a ranked list of authors. This is a quick way to see who is a prolific writer on a subject.

For the ‘needle in a haystack' search where you encounter a name of a person about whom you can find nothing in the usual biographical and news sources, a possible solution is DIALINDEX®. This Dialog tool lets Dialog scan the system for other types of databases, such as technical, academic or international that may contain information on the person you are looking for. You should especially consider industry or geographically-related DIALINDEX/OneSearch® categories (e.g., PHARMIND, MEDICINE, ASIANEWS). There is even the ALL category which searches most of the Dialog databases. You can use the search techniques above in DIALINDEX too.

Finally, rather than continue to research each person, you can take advantage of Dialog's Alert service to keep track of any information that appears on the people you want to track. You can create one Alert that includes all of them. Dialog even has an Alerts Bureau to help you craft your search. Alerts provide a cost-effective, efficient way to keep up-to-date on people and their activities.

Dialog has been a leader in the information industry for the last 36 years. When you use Dialog, you get all the content in over 600 databases, features that enable you to create targeted searches, subject-specific categories to help you select databases and the speed of the Dialog search engine to complete your searches in minutes.

For more information www.Dialog.com

Searching People Information in LexisNexis

When compared with the information available for free on the open Web, LexisNexis offers significantly more breadth and depth of authoritative content globally, ensures objective results and offers more search options that deliver the most relevant results.

Breadth and Depth of Content

LexisNexis' core collection that is useful for biographical research includes:

• Biographical materials from 600+ global providers covering most professions, industries and avocations
  
  
• News and event coverage from 20,000+ newspapers, magazines, trade pubs, broadcasters and blogs
  
  
• Intellectual property records (copyrights, trademarks, patents)
  
  
• Public records and legal materials.
  
  

Each of these content channels allows you to uncover critical background information on people and, when combined, a unique synergy of insights accrues.


Objectivity

On the open Web, people can often manage what is known about them. They can influence what is said and the often disorganised structure of Web content precludes easy and comprehensive research to discern a person's relationships, history and experiences.


To avoid selective disclosure by people, LexisNexis relies on editorially sound news sources, leading publishers and official documents, and organisation of these resources for easy searches, so you truly understand any individual's background.


Detailed Search Options for the Most Relevant Results

Search functionality in LexisNexis allows researchers to easily search either individual content sets or multiple content sets simultaneously. When performing biographical research, for example, searching multiple content sets at once is optimal as you are able to pull a complete picture and uncover unexpected information.

Using the Nexis easy search page, you can select multiple content sets and search all with a single query; if using the power search page, you can a complete content channel using preselected content options or a custom content collection you create.


When researching people, using Boolean search logic allows you to focus your research to ensure precision. Unlike the open Web, LexisNexis supports robust search logic allowing you to ensure the results you retrieve are about the person you are researching.


If, for example, you are researching a business executive with a fairly common name; through the use of Boolean search tools, you can easily retrieve key information. For example:

• First and last names do not always show in a standard order; proximity tools allow you to account for this. In LexisNexis, the ‘W' (within) performs this function - simply separate the first and last name i.e. (Roger w/2 Smith). You can use any numeric value to account for multiple middle names or honorifics that may apply
  
  
• Some people generate a significant amount of coverage, such as CEOs, elected officials and entertainers. To find stories that are significantly about a person, use LexisNexis' occurrence tool, ‘atleast'. This allows you to find stories where a person is the focus - simply enter the name (Roger w/2 Smith) and atleast6(smith). Again, you can use any numeric value to manage your results. For most people, the second reference will usually be their last name.
  
  
• Variations on names are common, such as Rob, Robbie, Robert, to account for this and ensure recall, LexisNexis' truncation ‘!' tool is an easy trick - simply truncate a name (Rog! w/2 Smith) and atleast6(smith) and all variations are retrieved.
  
  
• Common names always present challenges, appending a query with an association or place also ensures precision in results - simply add the name of a company, organisation, partner etc..... and you find the person you are interested in (Rog! w/2 Smith) and atleast6(smith) and (Company or City).
  
  

If you want to avoid Boolean queries, LexisNexis always provides fill-in-the-blank search forms allowing you to search individual content collections and specify your query. For example, if you are looking for a court case where Roger Smith was the attorney, you can use and enter the name in the ‘Counsel Name Field' or from the people research tab enter the first and last names in the appropriate fields to find all biographical profiles and news articles in which the subject appears.

LexisNexis also allows you to utilise out SmartIndexing technology to refine search results and increase precision of your results. LexisNexis includes a robust people authority file of notable individuals for use when searching news content. Similar to other Boolean searching, you simply enter a query using the person field - person(Roger Smith) - to locate articles substantially about someone. Additionally, you may also utilise the SmartIndexing percentage ranking tool to increase the aboutness of your results - simply query thus - person(Roger Smith 9*%) - to retrieve articles that are at least 90% about an individual. You may use any numeric value in your query; remember to use the asterix for the second number, as guessing exact ranking is tricky.

Selecting the People option from the Easy Search tab elicits results from over 100 unique global biographies and directories, covering the law, politics, entertainment and arts, sports, education, and business.


Key sources for People Research in LexisNexis:

• Biographies de Acteurs Publics
  
  
• Biographies of Members of the European Parliament
  
  
• Debrett's People of Today
  
  
• Directory of Directors
  
  
• FactSet Deal Advisors
  
  
• Federal Staff Directory
  
  
• Gale Biographies
  
  
• Jigsaw Contacts Database
  
  
• Marquis Who's Who Biographies
  
  
• SGA Executive Tracker Executives
  
  
• Standard & Poor's Corporate Register of Directors & Executives
  
  
• State Legislative Directory
  
  
• The Almanac of American Politics
  
  
• The Associated Press Candidate Biographies
  
  
• The Congressional Staff Directory
  
  
• World Compliance PEP List.
  
  

Along with interviews and profiles from leading news sources such as:

• The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Financial Times
  
  
• Time, Newsweek, New Yorker, Vanity Fair
  
  
• CBS, NBC, MSNBC, Fox ESPN, ABC, NPR
  
  
• Politico, Slate.com, Salon.com
  
  
• National Post, New Straits Times, The Australian, Globe & Mail, The Independent, Times of London
  
  
• Borsen, Der Spiegel, El Mundo, El Pais, Expansion, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Het Financieele Dagblad, L'Express, La Stampa.

LexisNexis' unique content collection and search functionalities allow you to find critical, objective information about people you are researching easily and more precisely than when using free open Web search engines. Public records, which was not discussed in detail, adds a whole new dimension to the LexisNexis offerings, giving researchers more depth to finding people information not found in the other databases or free over the Internet.

For more information about LexisNexis products, visit www.nexis.com.

Traditional sources still worth using

As the amount of information on the Internet has exploded, searching has become complicated. Remember to use the ‘traditional' sources because they can often shorten search time, give the most accurate information in a clearly organised manner, and often have the most workable format to edit for quality output. Too much information is not a good thing. Quality, targeted, easily found information will please your clients and will, most likely, help you stay within your budget because of the shorter search times involved.

As the information explosion has become so overwhelming, it is time to return to our search roots and use these time tested databases again.

This article is included in the FUMSI Report: Folio on Competitive Intelligence. Learn more and purchase.

Related FUMSI Links:

Dialog Use (FUMSI Sponsor): http://web.fumsi.com/go/sponsor/3409

Introduction to LexisNexis: http://web.fumsi.com/go/report/find/979

Introduction to Factiva: http://web.fumsi.com/go/report/find/976

Plus.....

The Big Three Survey and Report (VIP magazine): http://web.vivavip.com/go/shop/report/1195

By Donna Fryer

Donna Fryer has been intricately involved in the information research industry for almost 20 years.  Donna has served several industries in her research abilities including corporate, legal, private investigators, government, public relations, advertising, accounting and publishers.  She has spoken on a multitude of topics including Competitive Intelligence research, Internet research and technology issues to a variety of venues including the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals, SLA, TEC CEOs (now Vistage), WebSearch University, North Carolina Bar Association and the College of DuPage Soaring to Excellence programme. 

Donna has also developed and taught continuing legal education classes for attorneys and paralegals across the US and currently partners with a national provider to assist paralegals and legal assistants nationwide with their continuing education needs and a national training centre that trains HR, insurance, financial services and accounting professionals as well as other verticals. Donna also develops training programmes and trains business professionals via Webinars/Webcasts through her company's site: www.SearchitRight.com on a variety of research related topics. 

FUMSI articles by Donna Fryer »

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