Google can be a great resource for business research…  but don’t just plop some words into the search box and waste time wading through a bunch of search results.  Here are my top 5 tips for better business Googling.

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5. Think Synonymously

Problem: Let’s say you’re researching the global automotive industry.  You might miss good stuff if you only type “global automotive industry” in the search box.

Solution: Don’t give up after one or two searches, try a variety of searches using synonyms and related words. In addition to automotive, try car and automobile and auto.  In addition to global, try worldwide and international. For industry, try market and business.

Inside tip: Google also has a handy modifier (~) that automatically searches for related words.  Insert the ~ in front of your search terms, for example, type in the search box: ~automotive.

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4. Use Limiters to Overcome Info Overload

Problem: Seems like almost any search in Google can result in millions of results.  In fact, searching on “information overload” gives you almost 3 million!

Solution: Use limiters to create more precise searches.  My top three… Put your search terms in quotes to search for an exact phrase. Use site: to limit your search to specific sites (great for sites that don’t have their own search box) or to specific types of sites (ie: limit your search to .edu or .gov sites). Use the – to exclude words from your search.

Inside tip: Explore Google’s Advanced Search page for more options.   One more limiter… use filetype: to limit your search to specific types of files.  This can be useful for finding financials (filetype:xls), reports (filetype:pdf), and presentations (filetype:ppt).

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3. Try Other Flavors of Google

Problem: Even when using limiters, searching the entire Internet for business research is overwhelming.

Solution: Try Google’s other search engines.  Google Finance provides great company profiles including news, financials, market info, more.  To search for recent business events, try Google News.  Lots of good biz research comes from the government, so try Google Uncle Sam.

Inside tip: If you are searching for info on a public company, type stocks: in regular old www.google.com and then the ticker symbol. For example stocks:mtb.

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2. Get Academic with Google Scholar and Google Books

Problem: There’s a lot of unreliable stuff out there on the web.  Also, for class assignments your professor might require that you only use scholarly, academic resources (also called refereed or peer reviewed).

Solution: Try Google Scholar, a smartened-up version of Google.  It’s great for finding academic and scholarly articles and reports. Also try Google Books, Google’s huuuge collection of digitized e-books.  Who knows maybe you’ll find one the books required for a class there.

Inside tip: Check out the UB Libraries’ tips for using Google scholar.  If you are off-campus, remember to change your preferences so that you can access the good stuff.

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1. Go Beyond Google, Try Business Databases

Problem: Google doesn’t search everything…  there’s a lot of great business research out there that is not findable on Google at all. Plus, some of the good stuff that comes up on Google is not available for free — they want you to pay for it!

Solution: Don’t pay for business research yourself!  UB already pays to give you access to some of the best premium business research out there, stuff that’s not free on Google.  How to find it?  Use the business databases available from the library like Hoovers, Factiva (free Wall Street Journal access!) and Business Source Complete (free Harvard Business Review access!) The full list of business databases is available here, check out the “Top Resources” tab and the “Databases” tab.

Inside tip: A quick way to find UB’s business research databases is to Google “BizBrary” (as in “Business Library”) and click on the top hit.

And remember:  you can always ask me for help.  If you need help finding business research, give me a try!

Business law (Sarbanes-Oxley)

International regulations

Global banking and financial markets

Risk management, compliance, and governance

Fortune has just come out with its annual list of the 100 best companies to work for.  Three companies with ties to Western New York made the list:  Mattel #48 (Fisher Price, a subsidiary of Mattel, is located in East Aurora), Wegmans #5 (has made the list 12 years in a row), and Paychex #39 (located in Rochester, founded by Tom Golisano).

If you’re graduating soon and looking for places to work, check out our collection of eBooks for job seekers — you’ll find tips on resumes, cover letters, interviewing and more.

Are you studying entrepreneurship?  Maybe thinking about starting your own business?  Check out our new collection of Entrepreneurship Resources for theoretical and practical advice on everything from planning to starting to growing a business.

Our most popular entrepreneurship resource is the Business Plans Handbook which provides hundreds of examples of real-world business plans (click on “Business”).

A great way to test your business ideas is to enter one of the entrepreneurship competitions on campus, like the Panasci Technology Entrepreneurship Competition.  You will gain valuable insight on your ideas and maybe even win some start-up cash!

Here’s a ranking of the most popular business-related journals, magazines and newspapers here at UB: