Review of MindBranch.com Market Research Portal

[Infoadvis2 at aol.com]

(Cross-posted: apologies for any duplication)

Greetings--Below is a summary and excerpt from the December issue of The 
Information Advisor, which describes and reviews a new market research 
portal: MindBranch.com. If there are questions or comments feel free to call 
or email me directly at rberkman at aol.com. The full article provides more 
details on the features of the site. (Other articles in the December 2000 
issue include: tips on searching Internet discussion groups, finding PDF 
documents on the Web and a review of two key business information portals: 
Business.com and Portal B and a 4 page supplement on Choosing content for 
one's Intranet) 

Robert Berkman
Editor
The Information Advisor
www.informationadvisor.com
Falmouth MA
508-540-5990
rberkman at aol.com

*********************************************************************
Site Review: MindBranch
(Excerpt from December, 2000 Information Advisor)

MindBranch is technically not a new site. It is actually a revamping of an 
existing site called  PRGGuide.com, and had served primarily as a directory 
and index to off-the-shelf market research reports. On August 28, 
PRGGuide.com was renamed and redesigned, a new CEO was hired-Alton Adams, 
previously president of Standard & Poor's Data Resources Inc.-and the site 
began selling market research reports and other related business information 
products.

MindBranch has agreements with about 200 market research publishers, and 
makes about 17,000 reports available for searching and purchase. According to 
a MindBranch spokesperson, all but 15 of the 200 suppliers provide MindBranch 
with every report they publish. The firm also tells us that 10 of their 
publisher partners place an embargo on their reports (which can range from 
30-90 days).

We found searching MindBranch to be a delight, particularly for a Web-based 
database. You begin at the main Web page (www.mindbranch.com) where you can 
find a report by one of three ways: by browsing hierarchical categories; by 
entering keywords into the search box; or by clicking on "Advanced Find" to 
take advantage of various filtering and limiting tools to make your search 
more precise

MindBranch also offers some nice extras. There is the easy "shopping cart" 
method for making purchases, a free e-mail newsletter to keep you up to date 
on whatever kinds of news and new reports you want to track, and various free 
news and analysis on the site. One more unusual extra that MindBranch offers 
is a free service called "custom research." Here, you contact the firm and 
describe your research problem or project via an online Request For Proposal. 
MindBranch will then try to find and match up a market research firm to take 
on the specific research project and present you with quotes. (MindBranch's 
staff does not perform any actual research itself.)

Our overall reaction to MindBranch is extremely positive. It's one of the 
most intuitive Web databases we've come across. And it's not just a matter of 
ease of use, design, or functionality, all of which are outstanding. There is 
evidence that a great deal of thought and expertise went behind its creation. 
 

Of course MindBranch isn't perfect. It would be an even better product if 
users could limit searches to the title field. It would also be very helpful 
to be able to apply a more precise controlled vocabulary of subjects, 
products, industries, etc. against a detailed index. We'd also like to see a 
"buy by the page" option instituted, since business researchers typically 
don't need to purchase an entire report. On this latter point, a spokesperson 
for MindBranch tells us that "although report parts are not listed as 
separate products on the site, many publishers have authorized us to sell 
them if the customers requests it

And one potentially "iffy" area may be in customer service training. Our 
trial telephone call to the 800 number to obtain search assistance found a 
confused representative who said "I'm new and I'm not that good at this" in a 
response to a basic search question. Luckily, she handed the phone over to a 
knowledgeable technical person who was able to answer our question

**********************************************************************
The Information Advisor, an international monthly journal founded in 1987, is 
a guide for information professionals, who rely on its articles to help them 
identify, compare and select the best business sources from the myriad of 
information products and services available, whether in print, on a 
professional database or on the Web.  Readers include business librarians, 
information brokers, market researchers, knowledge managers, competitive 
intelligence professionals and other hands-on researchers and information 
specialists. The December issue  is available to non-subscribers for $20.  
Contact Ms. Sonia Bedikian at (212) 633-4539 or sbedikian at findsvp.com for 
further details.

The Information Advisor is published by FIND/SVP, Inc. (FSVP-NASDAQ), the 
global business advisory, research and consulting firm ( www.findsvp.com.)