October 7, 2008, Vol. 2, Issue 19

Whew! We’re exhausted. What a whirlwind two weeks it’s been. The nation is “bailing out”, companies are going under and the presidential campaign is in full swing. It’s a lot to digest, let alone keep track of. Not to worry, we’ve got some sites this week to help keep your head above water and make sure you’re “in the know’ in that next big meeting.

Debate? That was LAST night?

There’s no escaping the presidential candidates these days. From debates and nightly news, to parodies on Saturday Night Live and interviews on 60 Minutes, they’re everywhere. How are you supposed to watch it all? If you couldn’t watch, you can catch-up with what the candidates are saying by visiting Trooker. It’s an aggregation site for videos on the web. It searches sites like YouTube, myspace and metacafe, and then presents the results in one place. GENIUS!

Bailout Blues

Is all this talk of a bailout driving you crazy? Are you getting pressure from clients who want to know how exactly it’s going to affect their ability to market themselves in an unstable economy? Woe is you! But there is a place to find all sorts of economic information across the nation and industries. Enter Economagic, your one stop shop for learning about interest rates, credit information, housing sales and more. It’s a whole lotta numbers in one place, but it’s well organized so don’t be intimidated.

Face It

Facebook, Facebook, Facebook. Sigh. Even Wendy’s mother is on it now. Instead of lamenting the lack of close networks that we used to enjoy there, let’s celebrate the research aspects. (We do always try to find the silver lining.)

Facebook Lexicon counts occurrences of words and phrases on Walls over time. So if you, like us, would be fascinated with the fact that Pepsi peaked in February but Coke peaked in March, then check out Lexicon.

Find Your Center

We love a party, we just don’t love planning them. The devil is in the details and sometimes they can be daunting. Never fear, the good folks at Center’d are here to help. They’ve combined the best of local search with the best of planning tools to help take the guess work out of pulling together your next event, be it a family reunion or a fundraiser. You can search for a venue and read reviews from other folks to see what they think. You can sign-up volunteers and invite guests all in one place. You’ll be an expert planner in no time!

Ask Gus. He Knows.

For the past several years, we’ve had Stump the Researcher in this space where readers could ask for help with research questions. If you have some questions you never had the nerve to ask, you still can. But being that we amuse ourselves so much, we decided to change it up. So now, if you have a question for Gus, send it his way. Have you been looking for a resource or a publication or a database and don’t know where to find it? Or do you need better search syntax ideas? We’ll publish the answers on our blog and, if they’re interesting enough, we’ll feature them in an upcoming issue of this newsletter. So give it your best shot.