Previous editions of Research Helpline (February 2007) have pointed out that some blogs are commercial and biased in nature but are disguised as such.  You have to be careful when using content sources, like with any information research.  Generally speaking, blogs are a good source for consumer and product information, the latest buzz and recommendations, whatever your interest. 

Blog search engines are plentiful: Technorati, Sphere, Icerocket, Kinja and Xanga are several popular ones.  Blogpulse counts over 51 million blogs in its coverage, though figures for the number of blogs have been pegged at upwards of 80 million.  Blogpulse reports nearly 2/3 of the blogs are from outside the United States.  See www.blogpulse.com for more statistics, demographics and psychographics of bloggers and their audiences.

People search engines continue to sprout.  A vertical semantic people search engine that's been especially well-received is www.spock.com. Use it to dig up information and look for trends about people you want to know about.  Currently in beta.

Bulletin boards and forums continue to serve as a place in business, investment and industry research, but until recently there was no aggregate that unified bulletin boards from around the world through a central access site and unified login system.  Enter "Klotsu" at www.klotsu.com. A social networking site, you can browse/search through forum topics and/or make friends via other functionality.  A robust board tracker and forum search engine is fitfully known as www.boardtracker.com.  Both boardtracker and klotsu are from Pidgin Technologies. BoardTracker can be used as a search engine or track and match specific search terms or topics with threads and discussions.  Need to find aeronautical engineers?  Use boardtracker to find relevant forums or to find an expect in a specialized field or to find out what's on their minds.

Speaking of which, what's on your minds? 

Is Research Helpline providing the tips and techniques that you are searching for?   Is it providing you with what you need to do your jobs better?  What would you like to see in it?  Send me your suggestions, questions and issues that you'd like to see addressed in upcoming editions....send  to richard@halperninfoservices.com.