Finding the Answers to Your Internet Questions

Continuing the theme of the last column, here are more replies to readers' requests to find information on the Internet. My answers are just one approach; like life, there is rarely, if ever, one best way to do anything.

Question: How can you find the names and addresses of trade journals in any given industrial sector , whether or not they have an electronic presence?

Answer: I would try to state the question more precisely, that is, what specific journals in which specific industrial sectors. In any event, without more information, I would start with Peter Scott's excellent compilation of publishing companies called Publishers' Catalogs Home Page (http://www. lights.com/publisher/).

Question: Are the lyrics to "Wooly Bully" on the Internet?

Answer: Try this URL: http://turtle.ncsa.uiuc.edu/spicoli/wooly_bully.html

Question: A recent assignment involved a survey of world-wide providers of adhesives and sealants. Any suggestions as to where to find general information about specific types of companies, worldwide?

Answer: I'm wary of requests for all information that exists on a specific subject. My question would be: What outcome do you want or what result are you looking for and in what time? Without more information, I would try the World Wide Yellow Pages at http://www.yellow.com/. There are a number of other directories listed at Yahoo: http://www.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Business_Directory/. Here you'll find links to 19,586 companies, 3,213 products and services and 143 business directories.

Question: What is the BEST URL to find a business-to-business lead referral network? For example, I have customers who need products/services that we do not have, yet I would like to be able to direct my clients to a SAFE vendor to fulfill.

Answer: Finding the best of anything is always difficult! When it's the World Wide Web and you make the criteria qualitative, it becomes doubly so. One URL worth reviewing is the Wholesaler's Worldwide Marketplace at http://www.inetbiz.com/market/. Another that the reader himself suggested is Thomas Ho's Favorite Electronic Commerce WWW Resources (http://www.engr.iupui. edu:80/~ho/interests/commmenu.html). I would also review the business directories at Yahoo listed above.

Question: Is there a method to locate a person's E-mail address?

Answer: There are several ways to locate a person's E-mail address, depending on the amount of information you have. By far the best way is calling the person and asking. Absent that, the tools range from UNIX-based commands such as users, who and finger through whois and netfind to Web, Gopher and ftp servers. For a start, try Four11 at http://www.Four11.com/

Corrections on information about the Commerce Business Daily: Two readers sent E-mail to enlighten me that, first, the CDB is available free at this URL: http://www.rahul.net:80/nps/cbd/index.html, and, second, that you can get the CDB via E-mail by subscribing to this revised listserv discussion group: CBD Data Feed . In the first case, only that day's CBD is available, a come-on to a fee-based service.

John Makulowich writes, talks and trains on the Internet. You can reach him at makulow@ clark.net or makulow@cais.com. His home page is http://www.cais.com/makulow/verbwork.html