When budgets are being cut, individuals who seek information for business
decisions attempt to acquire data without spending an enormous amount of
money. The Web has afforded information seekers with a wealth of sources to
consult to pull relevant data for their needs. And it has provided
organizations with a tool that can be used on an ad hoc basis without
spending a great deal of cash.
(article continued below ...)
Although the Web has allowed organizations to save thousands of dollars
when it comes to their information-gathering needs for competitive
intelligence, the Web is also a source for erroneous information. The risk
of gathering and analyzing bad information is obvious. Using bad information
for strategic planning will lead to poor decisions and disappointing
results.
The objective of this article is to provide the lone competitive
intelligence practitioner with tips to evaluate content on the Web. After
reading the following tips, individuals will examine the quality of
information available on the Web differently.
Consider
the source
One of the most effective methods of evaluating information on the Web is
to consider the source of the information. The source should be well-known
in the information industry or in your respective industry. If you are not
familiar with the source of the data, conduct a routine search of the Web
using Google. With any luck, the results page should provide you with:
- The source's Website which provides more information on the piece of
data you are planning to use
- If anyone has consulted the source. Usually, reputable information
providers such as online newspapers and magazines will provide the
source of any piece of qualitative or quantitative information
Published
date
Once you have found the content you are looking for, try to spot when the
report or article was published. If there is not a date on the page, be
careful. Depending on the Website, attempt to discover when the Website was
updated and the particular page on which the information is offered. Your
last option is to send an e-mail to the Webmaster asking about the
publishing date. In situations where you are given statistics on a per
annual basis, try to extrapolate on the data given that you have some
quantitative information discussing trends.
Price
Vs. Content
There will be times when you will be forced to shop for information. The
majority of the vendors of information on the Web will provide you with a
brief summary of the data available in the report (i.e., MarketResearch.com,
Northern Light and Profound). It is up to you and your budget whether or not
the report should be purchased. By simply reading the summary and using your
instincts, you can judge the quality of the content and validate it by
conducting a routine Web search and see if there is similar content
available. Remember, price is not a good indicator of quality.
Look
for contact information
The Web has made it possible for anyone to host their Website and become
an expert on anything under the sun. No matter how nicely the information is
presented, you should look for contact information for the individual(s) who
have provided the data. Obtaining the correct contact information will give
you the opportunity to ask the author(s) of the report questions. Make sure
that you have the following contact information:
- Name
- Company / organization name
- Valid e-mail address
- Address
- Phone number
You can use Register.com to obtain the contact information listed above.
How
did you discover the site?
Whether it is a search engine or a hyperlink on a university's Website,
you should pay careful attention to how you managed to access the
information. Only credible gateways to information should give you entrance
to sites that will hopefully lead you to the information for which you are
searching. Obscure search engines and links on personal Websites are not the
best places to find leads to information. The majority of the search engines
on the Web have editors, who screen the sites that are bidding to be
indexed. If you are utilizing a reputable tool, chances are that you will
find credible content 80 percent of the time.
Past
reports (quality)
Once you have determined which information you have doubts about, it is
time to do some detective work. Armed with the author's name and company,
attempt to discover if the same individual or company have produced any
other reports in the past. By visiting a university business library, you
might have an opportunity to find hard copies of research originating by the
same author. By using a few reports, you may be able to judge the quality of
content that is supplied by the provider. With a critical eye, look for the
following:
- Sources of information - What sources have they used in the past? How
credible are they?
- Presentation of the information - Has the author(s) organized the data
in a clear manner?
- Analysis friendly - can individuals who need to make decisions fast
easily analyze the data?
Ask
around
If you still have doubts about any piece of information that is on the
Web, the best thing to do is ask questions about what you have found.
Besides picking up a phone, you can join various discussion groups or forums
on the Web (read the "Staying Up to Date in the World of Competitive
Intelligence" article for a few suggestions of the groups that you
could join). Your best bet is to begin asking questions in industry-specific
forums. Make sure that you provide individuals with details about the source
of the information and the facts that you are disputing. The participants
should have an idea if the source is credible by recognizing the
publication's name and its reputation of providing solid information. In
addition, for quantitative information that seems old, ask participants if
the statistics make sense to them or see if they recommend an alternative
source to gather up-to-date information.
Has
it been sourced on the Web (indexed) ?
A quick method to check in the validity of the information found on the
Web is to see where it has been mentioned by its title. By placing the title
within quotation marks in the search box in Google, you will be able to see
where the piece of information has been referred to on various Websites. If
well-known authors, Websites, and researchers have referred it to, you
probably have stumbled on to something good. If your search results provide
you with less than five hits, start asking questions about what you have
discovered.
Use
Intuition
Call it intuition or a hunch; your judgment is one of the best evaluation
tools at your disposal. As you browse through pages of text, the information
should be provided in a structured manner with supporting evidence. If the
evidence is not presented or does not make sense, listen to your intuition
and examine the information once again. Upon further review, your intuition
will cause you to either discard the information found on the Web or find
more data that will substantiate the findings in the first document.
Conclusion
Due to the demands placed on online researchers to find information
promptly, the Web has supplied an outlet for a huge amount of information.
With a simple keyword search, individuals are given pages upon pages of data
from which they have to choose content that is relevant to their needs.
After deciding whether the data is relevant or not, individuals should be
concerned about the validity of the information on the pages. This article
was written with the intention of furnishing competitive intelligence agents
with a "how-to" guide to better evaluate content on the Web to be
used in making better business decisions for their company. If you are
placed in a situation in which you have doubts regarding the information
that has been collected, utilize the following downloadable checklist
(http://www.library.kent.edu/websrch/eval.html) to assist in evaluating
information in an efficient manner.
Want to know more? The following books are available at Amazon.com:
- Find It Fast: How to Uncover Expert Information on Any Subject Online
or in Print By Robert I. Berkman World/Canada
- Web of Deception: Misinformation on the Internet By Anne P. Mintz
World/Canada
- Locating and Evaluating Information on the Internet (Internet Library)
By Art Wolinsky World/Canada Online Articles
- Evaluating Internet information By Elizabeth E. Kirk · Life Beyond
Yahoo: Evaluating Information
- Critical Evaluation of Resources on the Internet By Josie Tong,
Herbert T. Coutts Education and Physical Education Library, University
of Alberta
Learn about practical
analytical tools, frameworks, and techniques in hands on interactive
workshops from corporate practitioners at Competia International Symposium
2003, June 2nd - 4th, 2003, Montreal, Canada
-- William Yakes was an information manager at Mercer Management
Consulting, before founding Information Managers, where he is an information
specialist in the B2B e-commence sector. His first degree was in Library and
Information Studies and in 1999 he completed a PhD that looked at the impact
of electronic trading networks on the retail sector. William can be reached
at w.yakes@informmanagers.com
March 4, 2003
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