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The changing landscape of search for business information
VOGIN-IP-lezing, 9 March 2017 Amsterdam Public Library
Facilitator: Karen Blakeman, RBA Information Services
Karen.Blakeman@rba.co.uk
http://www.rba.co.uk/
Twitter: @karenblakeman
02/05/2023 www.rba.co.uk 2
Ever changing world, always new challenges
Political changes, legal and regulatory environment, right to be forgotten, “fake” news, parodies/spoof news, misleading headlines, click bait, deliberate
misinformation, incorrect use of terminology, misinterpretation, edited images, images unrelated
to the story, disappearing pages/sites/datasets
Mobile search and mobile friendly pages
Google continually changing how it searches and displays results, rewrites searches
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Brexit!
Affects all countries not just UK Market research and industry reports produced before the referendum make assumptions based on the UK being part of the EU and, in some cases, that there is EU funding and support. All these reports will become obsolete.
Will some international companies move their centre for European activities/production away from the UK?
UK will no longer be included in official EU sources such as Eurostat (but will archival material still be included?)
All bets are off with respect to forecasts written before the Brexit vote: manufacturing industry, research, international trade etc.
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Context is important
Government’s debt, deficits, austerity, spending cuts, economic slow down (despite what many of the headlines say)
Misunderstanding and misuse of statistics
Another worldwide financial crisis imminent?2017: The Year When the World Economy Starts Coming Apart | Our Finite World https://ourfiniteworld.com/2017/01/10/2017-the-year-when-the-world-economy-starts-coming-apart/
Resource depletion
Ongoing energy crisisHSBC: Global oil supply. Will mature field declines drive the next supply crunch? Kim Fustier, Gordon Gray, Christoffer Gundersen, Thomas Hilboldt https://www.research.hsbc.com/R/24/vzchQwb
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“Right to be Forgotten”
EU Data Protection
Information is NOT removed from the web, only the link to information in the search results
Not automatic – subject has to apply to have links that point to specific information about themselves removed from the results. Application may be rejected.
Applies to all search engines with an EU/EEA presence, not just Google
Links hidden from anyone who can be identified as being physically located in Europe (IP address)
Google adds removal statement from all results for searches on personal names even if nothing has been removed. (Does not apply to public figures, famous people or celebrities)
Avoid the ruling by faking your location? VPNs, anonymous browsing/networks, Tor?
Know the sources that may have the information you need e.g. company and directors databases, insolvency sites, social media, professional/trade networks, news sites (but see next slide)
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“Right to be forgotten”
EU “link tax” – ancillary rights, neighbouring rights
Media Publishers Action. Speak up against “ancillary rights” that hurt publishers and digital publishing http://mediapublishers.eu/
The Spanish experience- doesn’t allow publishers to opt out as did German and Belgian legislation
- Google closed down Google News Spain http://googlepolicyeurope.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/an-update-on-google-news-in-spain.html
- publishers lost traffic and revenue http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/07/new-study-shows-spains-google-tax-has-been-a-disaster-for-publishers/
Researchers have to locate and search sources individually02/05/2023 www.rba.co.uk 8
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Donald Trump’s Scottish welcome to be led by Begbie http://newsthump.com/2017/03/02/donald-trumps-scottish-welcome-to-be-led-by-begbie/
Satirical/parody news sites
Plenty of them - get to know the main ones. Spoofs are not always obvious in this increasingly bizarre world.
Very different from deliberate fake news.
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Misleading headlines
An Independent article as seen on Facebook “Britain just managed to run entirely on renewable energy for nearly six days”
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Click through to the original article
Half of UK electricity comes from low-carbon sources for first time ever, claims new report http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/half-electricity-low-carbon-first-time-report-drax-climate-change-environment-a7414936.html
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Look at the source code of the page (Ctrl U):
Uses an Open Graph meta tag (og:title) that is used by Facebook rather than the webpage title.
Further details: How to write totally misleading headlines for social media | Karen Blakeman's Blog http://www.rba.co.uk/wordpress/2016/11/15/how-to-write-totally-misleading-headlines-for-social-media/
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Story appears in several news sources but hardly any give a link to the original report
Most mention collaboration between Drax and Imperial College London
A search comes up with a press release from DRAX http://www.drax.com/press_release/50-britains-electricity-now-low-carbon-according-ground-breaking-new-report/
Which in turn leads to Drax Electric Insights http://electricinsights.co.uk/
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Research beyond the headline and PR
All Dutch Trains Now Run on 100% Wind Power http://futurism.com/all-dutch-trains-now-run-on-100-wind-power/
Photo attribution: I, Maurits90, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:VIRM6.jpg
Quote from a green group on social media: “If the Dutch can do it then so can the rest of Europe”
Is the story genuine? What information is needed to assess whether it is achievable in other/individual countries? What questions do we need to ask?
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Confirm that in general story is true - are other reliable sources covering it?
Is the energy used guaranteed to be generated from wind?
Are all of the trains/tracks on the Dutch network electric? If not how much?
Is all of the electricity generated by wind farms within the Netherlands?
How much electricity is used by the Dutch rail network? Other countries?
How much of other countries’ railway network is electric?
How does the volume of traffic on the Dutch rail network compare with other countries? [Need to find out how this is measured by the rail industry – track kilometres, route kilometres, train kilometres, passenger kilometres]
How much electricity in other countries is generated by wind? Where would they get any shortfall?
Do the Netherlands’ trains really run on 100% wind power? | Energy Matters http://euanmearns.com/do-the-netherlands-trains-really-run-on-100-wind-power/ Energy accounting transaction
Problem with intermittency of power generation by wind - Vindkraften i Europa | KLIMATSANS http://klimatsans.com/2016/07/06/vindkraften-i-europa/
The curse of the subeditor’s thesaurus!
Terminology is important. Repeating the same word several times in a paragraph might be essential for accuracy.
Everyday synonyms and alternative terms can have very different meanings in a scientific or technical context.
energy is not just electricity
bacteria are not the same as viruses
an oil resource is not the same as a reserve
Statistics watchdog warns government over homelessness figures https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/feb/22/statistics-watchdog-warns-government-dclg-homelessness-figures
Statistics
Need to know what is covered by the dataset
UK statutory definition of homelessness only includes people local authorities are obliged to assist
does not include people given help by charities, homelessness prevention and relief schemes
How has that changed over time?
Political motivation and manipulationfor example UK unemployment figures
Views and interpretations from different countries
Use country versions of search engines and tools to find “local” reports, views and interpretations of events, people, companies
Country versions of Google give priority to local content (but in local language)
Go to the relevant country version of Google, for example www.google.fr, www.google.de, www.google.no
translate search terms using Google or Bing translate if you don’t know the language
List of Google domainshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_domains
Country versions of Wikipedia for biographies of famous people, politicians - not the same article translated
“A picture is worth a thousand words”
(and lies?)
Where did that photo come from?
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Is this really a photo of the UK House of Lords in 2015 debating the issue of a ‘pay NHS’ (note: the image has now been changed !)
http://www.opendemocracy.net/ournhs/richard-grimes/government-moves-to-consider-nhs-user-charges
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Best Reverse Image Search Engines, Apps And Uses (2016) http://beebom.com/reverse-image-search-engines-apps-uses/
Reverse image searching made easy... http://www.zdnet.com/article/reverse-image-searching-made-easy/
Disappearing documents, datasets, pages & websites
Can’t find a page or document that was there last week?
If the link is still in the search results use the search engines’ cached page options
Click on downward pointing arrow next to the result in Google, Bing or Yandex, and click on Cached or In Cache (Google) or Cached page (Bing, Yandex)
Bing
Can’t find the link in the deluge of results? Or Google doesn’t find it at all?
If you know the website it was on use the ‘site:’ command to focus your search (Google, Bing, Yandex)
Google does not index everything, so if you can’t find it on Google try Bing and/or Yandex
An example:
Global oil supply. Will mature field declines drive the next supply crunch? Kim Fustier, Gordon Gray, Christoffer Gundersen, Thomas Hilboldt
Difficult to find on HSBC site without the link – use site: command (see later)
Copies of documents may be elsewhere on the web. Legal (copyright)? Have they been altered?
Archives
List of Web archiving initiatives - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Web_archiving_initiatives
Internet Archive Wayback Machine http://www.archive.org/
- only archives web pages, not databases- no password protected or paywall sites/pages- website may block access- ideally need to know website- a page or document URL is even better
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https://archive.org/
Internet Archive’s Trump Archive launches today | Internet Archive Blogs https://blog.archive.org/2017/01/05/internet-archives-trump-archive-launches-today/
Rogue Scientists Race to Save Climate Data from Trump | WIRED https://www.wired.com/2017/01/rogue-scientists-race-save-climate-data-trump/
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Mobile web browsing overtakes desktop for the first time | Technology | The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/nov/02/mobile-web-browsing-desktop-smartphones-tablets
Mobile devices – results display
Google’s “facts”, answers and knowledge graph usually fill the screen
As these are sometime totally wrong it is vital that users make the effort to scroll down
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Google's desktop search could be out of date compared to mobile results soon https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/oct/14/google-desktop-search-out-of-date-mobile
October 24, 2016Antoni van Leeuwenhoek’s 384th Birthday https://www.google.com/doodles/antoni-van-leeuwenhoeks-384th-birthday
Google goes to great lengths to personalise your results according to your search history, contacts, what other people have searched and clicked on, location, device, phase of the moon....
Private Browsing, Go Incognito
Google provides Quick Answers and “facts”, combines extracts from different websites in the knowledge graph
www.rba.co.uk 4502/05/2023
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Private browsing - quickest way to “de-personalise”search
Chrome - New Incognito window Ctrl+Shift+N
FireFox Ctrl+Shift+P
Internet Explorer Ctrl+Shift+P
Opera Ctrl+Shift+N
Does not remove country personalisation, does not hide who you are or your IP address
Not search engine specific, built into the browser
Location of Incognito and private browsing on mobile devices varies
Choosing your search terms
Google automatically looks for synonyms and variations on your terms
- biofuels will find biodiesel, biogas, bio-ethanol etc.
- but you do not get the same results if you use biodiesel instead of biofuels
- run separate searches using alternative terms
The terms you use can radically change results even if they are synonyms.
Look for terms that are subject/industry specific.
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Google automatically looks for variations on your search terms and drops terms from your search
To force an exact match and inclusion of a term or phrase in a search prefix it with ‘intext:’
memorial garden intext:penryn heritage trail
Use Verbatim (Woord voor Woord) to search for all of your terms without any variations or omissions (but not reliable – may have to combine intext: and Verbatim)
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Google Verbatim
Verbatim – Woord voor woord
Think file format
PDF for research documents, government reports, industry papers
ppt or pptx for presentations, tracking down an expert on a topic
xls or xlsx for spreadsheets containing data
Use the advanced search screen or the filetype: command creative upcycling UK filetype:pdf
creative upcycling UK filetype:ppt OR filetype:pptx
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site: command
Found via Bing
Company Information
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Company information
Ownership, directors, structure, share price, accounts, activities, news Availability depends on:
type of company, sole trader, partnership, private, limited liability, companies with publicly traded shares e.g. PLC
business size (large, medium, small, micro)
country, state or region within the country
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Official company information
Lists of official company registersOfficial Company Registers (currently being updated)http://www.rba.co.uk/sources/registers.htm Company registration around the worldhttp://www.commercial-register.sg.ch/home/worldwide.html Companies House Overseas registries linkshttp://www.gov.uk/government/publications/overseas-registries#reg
US – listed companiesSEC Edgar IDEA – Interactive Date Electronic Applications http://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml
Canada - listed companiesSEDAR http://www.sedar.com/
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OpenCorporates :: The Open Database Of The Corporate World https://opencorporates.com/
European Business Register http://www.ebr.org
Gateway to official company information in 27 European countries (24 online via EBR)
Different suppliers depending on country of residence see http://www.ebr.org/index.php/information-distributors/
kompany - Register Report, Company Check, Credit Report – Instant Online Access https://www.kompany.com/
Company Search | Primary source for KYC checks | Kyckr http://portal.kyckr.eu/
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kompany http://www.kompany.com/ Covers more than 100 million companies in 150 countries and jurisdictionsOfficial registry information plus credit reportsNeed to sign in to view all of the free information
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Examples of problem areas for the researcher
Switzerlandonly banks, insurance companies and companies traded on the Swiss stock exchange are required to provide financial statements
Cayman Islands“The Registrar of Companies can only release the name and type of company, its date of registration, the address of the registered office and the company’s status. Disclosing any other information is prohibited unless requested by a law enforcement agency.”
British Virgin Islands“A company is not required to file its register of directors, register of members, register of charges or an annual return with the BVI Registrar of Corporate Affairs.”
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Panama Papers https://offshoreleaks.icij.org/
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Panama Papers https://offshoreleaks.icij.org/
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Statistics, Industry and Market Data
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Official statistics
OFFSTATS http://www.offstats.auckland.ac.nz/
Google Public data Explorer http://www.google.com/publicdata
Eurostat http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/main/home
European Data Portal https://www.europeandataportal.eu/
International organisations such as the World Bank, OECD, ILO
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Google Public Data Explorer
http://www.google.com/publicdata/One of Google's best kept secrets!
Public data sets made available by Eurostat, World Bank, IMF, CSO Ireland, OECD, ITU, some national statistics offices (but not ONS), and many more.
Source and date updated given.
Charts and charting options can highlight oddities and missing data
Look at the charts to see if there is a sudden change in the trends.
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Zanran http://www.zanran.com/
Searches graphs, charts, tables, PDFs, spreadsheets
Title in results list is usually the title or caption to the table and not title of the document
Hover over the thumbnail to see a preview of the table or page
Click on the URL button next to the result to view the original URL of the document (not always possible)
Click on the title of the result to see Zanran’s own copy (free registration usually required. Useful if document no longer available at it’s original location and can’t be found in any of the web archives
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Zanran
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Statista - The Statistics Portal for Market Data, Market Research and Market Studies https://www.statista.com/
– 60,000 topics from over 18,000 sources– http://www.statista.com/topics/– some information free, registration (free) required Chart of the day https://www.statista.com/chartoftheday/
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ReportLinker http://www.reportlinker.com/
Searches free and priced reports and dataSome information displayed free of chargeTo download or view the public reports there is a charge
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Spurious Correlations http://tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations
www.rba.co.uk 7517/03/2015
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Operation Catdrop https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17BP9n6g1F0
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Operation CatdropOperation Cat Drop http://catdrop.com/
Operation Cat Drop: history or hoax? | The Sieve https://the-sieve.com/2013/10/20/operation-cat-drop-history-or-hoax/
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