The document discusses the changing landscape of search for business information. It notes that the political, legal and regulatory environments are constantly shifting, including issues around "fake news", misleading headlines, and the "right to be forgotten". It also discusses how Brexit and mobile search are affecting available information. Context around statistics, forecasts and interpretations is important to consider from different countries' perspectives.

1. 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

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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 crisis
HSBC: 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

6. “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)
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7. 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”

8. 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 individually
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Donald Trump’s Scottish
welcome to be led by Begbie
http://newsthump.com/2017/0
3/02/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/

13. 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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14. 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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15. 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?
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16. 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?

17. 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/

18. 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

19. Statistics watchdog warns government over homelessness figures
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/feb/22/statistics-watchdog-
warns-government-dclg-homelessness-figures

20. 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 manipulation
for example UK unemployment figures

21. Google Public Data Explorer
http://www.google.com/publicdata/

22. 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 domains
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_domains
Country versions of Wikipedia for biographies of famous people,
politicians - not the same article translated

23. Yandex
International version at www.yandex.com
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24. Seznam http://www.seznam.cz/

25. “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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http://tineye.com/
Option to sort by
oldest

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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/

31. Disappearing documents,
datasets, pages & websites

32. 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)
Google
Bing

33. 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)

34. Copies of documents may be elsewhere on the web.
Legal (copyright)? Have they been altered?

35. 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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36. https://archive.org/

37. https://archive.org/

39. Internet Archive’s Trump Archive launches today | Internet Archive
Blogs https://blog.archive.org/2017/01/05/internet-archives-
trump-archive-launches-today/

40. 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

42. 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

44. October 24, 2016
Antoni van Leeuwenhoek’s 384th Birthday
https://www.google.com/doodles/antoni-van-leeuwenhoeks-384th-
birthday

45. 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 4513/03/2017

46. 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
13/03/2017 46www.rba.co.uk

47. 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)

49. Google Verbatim
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50. Verbatim – Woord voor woord

51. 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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52. site: command

53. Found via Bing

54. Company Information
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55. 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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56. Official company information
Lists of official company registers
Official Company Registers (currently being updated)
http://www.rba.co.uk/sources/registers.htm
Company registration around the world
http://www.commercial-register.sg.ch/home/worldwide.html
Companies House Overseas registries links
http://www.gov.uk/government/publications/overseas-
registries#reg
US – listed companies
SEC Edgar IDEA – Interactive Date Electronic Applications
http://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml
Canada - listed companies
SEDAR http://www.sedar.com/
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57. OpenCorporates :: The Open Database Of The Corporate
World https://opencorporates.com/

58. https://opencorporates.com/registers/175

59. OpenCorporates http://opencorporates.com/
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60. OpenCorporates http://opencorporates.com/
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61. 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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62. kompany http://www.kompany.com/
Covers more than 100 million companies in 150 countries and
jurisdictions
Official registry information plus credit reports
Need to sign in to view all of the free information
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63. Examples of problem areas for the researcher
Switzerland
only 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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64. Panama Papers https://offshoreleaks.icij.org/
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65. Panama Papers https://offshoreleaks.icij.org/
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66. Statistics, Industry and Market
Data
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67. 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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68. http://www.offstats.auckland.ac.nz/
13/03/2017 www.rba.co.uk 68

69. 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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70. Zanran http://zanran.com/

71. 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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72. Zanran
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73. 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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74. ReportLinker http://www.reportlinker.com/
Searches free and priced reports and data
Some information displayed free of charge
To download or view the public reports there is a charge
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75. Spurious Correlations http://tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations
www.rba.co.uk 7517/03/2015

76. Operation Catdrop
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17BP9n6g1F0
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77. Operation Catdrop
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Operation 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/