The World Wide Web (WWW) is a popular platform for delivering
digitized information. All types of information sources are
available on WWW such as primary sources (e-journals),
secondary sources (bibliographic databases) and tertiary sources
(directories). Web-based information sources have some specific
features compared to other forms (print, CD-ROM). In this paper
we have discussed the steps involved in setting up a web-based
company directory of Information Technology (IT) industry.
As the first step, a few important web-based company directory
services are analyzed. Based on the analysis, meta tags, indexing
and search features required for effective web-based company
directory service are defined. About 50 company web pages related
to IT industries are retrieved by surfing the Net. The collected
information is compiled and mounted as a MYSQL database.
PERL is used to access the database. The sample directory has
features such as hierarchical browsing, and field based searching

Anuradha, K.T.

Gupta, Umakant

English

Librarians' Digital Library

Workshop on  
Multimedia and Internet Technologies 
26th -28th February, 2001 
DRTC, Bangalore 
 
Paper: CB 
 
    
 
Web-based company directories: A case 
study with IT industry 
 
 
Umakant Gupta and K.T. Anuradha 
NCSI, IISc, Bangalore 560 012 
 
Abstract 
The World Wide Web (WWW) is a popular platform for delivering 
digitized information. All types of information sources are 
available on WWW such as primary sources (e-journals), 
secondary sources (bibliographic databases) and tertiary sources 
(directories). Web-based information sources have some specific 
features compared to other forms (print, CD-ROM). In this paper 
we have discussed the steps involved in setting up a web-based 
company directory of Information Technology (IT) industry.  
As the first step, a few important web-based company directory 
services are analyzed. Based on the analysis, meta tags, indexing 
and search features required for effective web-based company 
directory service are defined. About 50 company web pages related 
to IT industries are retrieved by surfing the Net. The collected 
information is compiled and mounted as a MYSQL database. 
PERL is used to access the database. The sample directory has 
features such as hierarchical browsing, and field based searching. 
Paper: CB                                                                         Umakant Gupta & K.T. Anuradha 
 2
 
1 Introduction 
 
The World Wide Web (WWW) is a popular platform for delivering digitized 
information. It allows users to access the information services easily, but the users 
face the challenge of finding and using information that is accurate and reliable. 
Browsers such as Netscape and Internet Explorer have demystified the Internet, 
and made its contents accessible to users who have minimum technical expertise. 
Consequently, the notion of the Internet as a virtual library available at the click of 
a mouse is becoming increasingly attractive, particularly to libraries with limited 
resources and small collections.  On the web all type of sources are available like 
primary sources (E-Journals), secondary sources (Bibliographic databases) and 
tertiary sources (Directories). However, using the web to access accurate and 
reliable information is a complicated proposition. 
 
2 What are Company Directories 
Company directories are sources that are defined as a list of companies arranged 
systematically, usually in alphabetical or classified order giving details such as 
address, phone number(s), key persons, financial and product information.  
 
Company directories are usually available in the form of multi-volume printed sets. 
Since they are both cumbersome and expensive, the printed directories are 
typically available only in libraries. Other forms of company directories, such as 
on CD-ROM, are available, but they are also very expensive. Since past few years, 
company directories have become available on the Web. As a result, more people 
from outside the libraries can access the directories, and there have been 
substantive changes in the directories themselves. For example, some directories 
have added fields such as URLs, key persons and financial information of the 
companies. Another example is the added capacity to search by different approach 
like company name or region or products/services or categories or ticker or full 
text of the directories. Contrary to this, print version typically offers only two or 
three avenues of access i.e. by company name or region. So one result of the new 
Web based company directories… … …                                                                Paper: CB 
 3
web-based environment is that company directories are now more easily accessible 
to the general public in terms of cost and availability. Another result is the new 
features that have been added which respond to the possibilities provided by the 
new technological environment.  
 
3 Locating the Company Directories on the Web 
There are many company directories available on the web, some are freely 
available and some are on subscription basis. Following is a sample list of web-
based company directories. 
a) Hoover’s Online 
http://www.hoovers.com/company/dir/0,2116,4798,00.html 
b) Corporate Information www.corporateinformation.com 
c) Thomas Register www.thomasregister.com 
d) Kompass www.kompass.com 
e) Lycos Companies Online www.companiesonline.com  
f) AllBusiness.com www.comfind.com  
 
4 Analysis of Web-Based Company Directories 
To judge the impact and reliability of web -based company directories, first three 
sites are chosen for comparative analysis. These web-based company directories 
are evaluated both as web sites and informational databases. Here are the some 
categories chosen for this analysis with examples of types of questions asked 
during the assessment.  
 
4.1 Authority: Who is responsible for this information? What is the 
authority/expertise of person or group who created the site? 
 
4.2 Accuracy: How reliable and accurate is the information and data source? Is it 
clear who has the ultimate responsibility for ensuring accuracy? 
 
4.3 Objectivity: Is the information biased? Are the goals of the site clearly stated? 
Who is the intended audience? 
Paper: CB                                                                         Umakant Gupta & K.T. Anuradha 
 4
 
4.4 Currency: When was the information created and when is it updated? Are the 
links up to date? 
 
4.5 Coverage: What is the extent and depth of the information? If there are print 
equivalents, does the coverage differ? 
 
4.6 Accessibility: How easy/difficult is it to access the site? How easy/difficult is 
it to find information? How flexible are the searching options? 
 
4.7 Search Features: Which types of search features are provided by the 
directories? 
 
4.8 Browsing Features: Is the browsing features provided by directories? If yes, 
then through which fields browsing facility is available.  
 
4.9 Help: Is the help facility is available? Is it user friendly? 
 
The following table shows the comparative analysis of web-based company 
directories.  
Company  
Directories 
Authority Currency Coverage Contents Accessibility 
Hoover's  
 Online 
Provides 
information 
about 
sponsor 
No 
information 
15,000 
(companies 
all over the 
world) 
Exhaustive 
information  
Free & 
subscription  
Corporate 
Information 
   
    ,, 
Weekly 3,00,000 
(companies   
all over the 
world) 
All basic  
information 
(name,   
 Address,  
 Financial  
information) 
Free 
Thomas 
Register 
   
 
    ,, 
No 
information 
1,56,194 
(companies 
only 
American and 
Canadian) 
Brief 
information 
(name, 
products, 
address) 
Free 
 
Web based company directories… … …                                                                Paper: CB 
 5
Company  
Directories 
Boolean 
search                      
Feedback 
search
Fields search Browsing Truncation 
Hoover's  
 Online 
And  Yes Name, 
Co.keywords 
people, news ----- 
Yes(five 
approaches) 
No  
Corporate 
Information 
And, or No Name, ticker Region, 
categories 
Automatic 
truncation 
Thomas 
Register 
And,or, 
not 
Yes Name, brand, 
product or service 
No No  
 
 
Company Directories Exact match Advanced search Help  
 Hoover’s Online Yes Yes (only for members) Yes(not examples) 
Corporate Information No No  Yes(with examples) 
Thomas Register Yes  No  No  
 
5 Features of Web-Based Company Directories 
On the basis of analysis, following features of web -based company directories are 
defined: 
5.1  Meta Tags (Content Information) 
Ø Contact Information: Company name, Contact person, Full address of 
the company, E-Mail address, Phone number, Fax number, Toll free 
number.  
Ø General Information: Number of employees, Year established, Symbol.  
Ø Description (Activities of Company) 
Ø Web site: Home page address, Products/services, Downloads, Site 
search (with link) 
Ø Key persons: Chairman, President, Chief Financial Officer, Secretary. 
Ø Financial Information: Market Capitalization, Sales and Rate of 
Growth, Annual Report, Stock Chart, Earnings / Dividends, Currency, 
Fiscal Year Ends. 
Ø Top Competitors.  
Ø Products and Services defined using Primary Industrial Code 
 
Paper: CB                                                                         Umakant Gupta & K.T. Anuradha 
 6
5.2  Indexing Features  
According to ANSI, “An index is a systematic guide to items contained in, or 
concepts derived from, a collection. These items or derived concepts are 
represented by entries arranged in a known or stated searchable order, such as 
alphabetical, chronological, or numerical.” 
 
To provide proper guidance to find out the required company information, 
approaches should be provided by company direc tories through company name, 
ticker, company category, products or services, region. The following features are 
also considered to fulfill these approaches.  
Ø Use of product and service catalogues to standardize the product and 
service headings. 
Ø Provide hierarchical relations among the products and services headings.  
Ø Index the company name in as many ways as possible. 
 
5.3  Search Features 
Following search features should be available in the company directory:  
Ø Boolean searches.  
Ø Feedback searches. 
Ø Exact matching. 
 
Directories should also support browsing features through categories of company, 
region as well as the first alphabet of company name so that users can easily find 
the required company.  
 
6 System Design 
Setting up a web-based company directory demands minimum hardware and 
software. In this study, MYSQL is used for creating the company database and 
PERL scripts have been written in RH Linux 6.0 to search and browse the 
company database.  For setting up web -based company directory of IT industry 
following steps have been taken.  
Web based company directories… … …                                                                Paper: CB 
 7
 
6.1  Collect the Required Metadata  
To create any database, metadata is required. In this study, the web is used as an 
information source (company web site and other sources) to collect the required 
company data such as company name, key persons, financial information, products 
and services.  
 
6.2  Classify all IT Companies 
Classification of IT companies has been made to provide the searching and 
browsing facility through particular class of the companies. In this study nine 
broad categories of the IT companies are identified and each category is again 
classified into subcategories. The following is the list of broad categories: 
1) IT Service Providers. 
2) Software Products.  
3) Hardware Products. 
4) Associations & Agencies.  
5) Education & Training. 
6) Manufactures & Distributors. 
7) Internet.  
8) Publications.  
9) Telecommunication.  
 
6.3  Database Design 
MYSQL, a SQL (Structure Query Language) database server that is in public 
domain, is used to create company database. MYSQL is a client server 
implementation that consists of a server daemon mysqld and many different 
clients, programs/libraries.  
 
For this study, one database “directory” is created. Since MYSQL does not support 
foreign key concept, for providing hierarchical browsing to mysql database, 
twenty-three tables (for each broad categories and subcategories which has 
Paper: CB                                                                         Umakant Gupta & K.T. Anuradha 
 8
subdivisions) including one table for company information are created under the 
database “directory”. The structure of all the category tables (twenty-two tables) is 
the same. An example of category table is given below. The following example 
shows the record fields for the IT Services category and company information.  
 
ID Number for identification of a particular record  
CODE Number for identification of group of subcategory 
SERVICE Name of subcategory 
LINK SERVICE URL address for providing the link to subcategories 
HIERARCHY Name of broad category 
Table 1: Record fields for category table 
Table 2: Record fields for company information table 
 
6.4  Search Interface 
 Using PERL and CGI the user interface is created for searching and browsing of 
the database. The search can be done by company name, products and services or 
category and this search can be restricted by country and browsing can be done by 
category of the company and first alphabet of company name. The database 
supports truncation and search is case insensitive in nature.  
ID Number for identification of records  
NAME Name of company 
ADDRESS Address of company 
PHONE Phone numbers of company 
EMAIL  E-Mail address of company 
DESCRIPTION General information about company 
KEY PERSONS Name of the key persons of the company  
LINK MAP URL address of the map of the company 
LINK ANNUAL REPORT URL address of the annul report of the company 
LINK STOCKCHART URL address of the stock chart of the company 
LINK COMPANY URL addresses of the company web sites  
COMPETITORS Name of the competitors of the company 
LINK COMPETITORS URL addresses of the competitors web site 
SYMBOL Unique symbol of the company  
ESTABLIS HMENT YEAR Establishment year of the company 
FISCAL YEAR END Financial end month of the company 
PRODUCTS/SERVICES Products and Services of the company 
CODES  Codes for the identification of the categories of the company 
Web based company directories… … …                                                                Paper: CB 
 9
The following are the screenshots of the search interface and the corresponding 
search result: 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Paper: CB                                                                         Umakant Gupta & K.T. Anuradha 
 10
7 References 
1. ARMSTRONG (Chris J.). Database Quality Criteria.   
Gopher://ukoln.bath.ac.uk:7070/00/BUBL_Main_Menu/H/H2/H2C28/H2C280
02_Database_Quality_Criteria 
2. GRASSIAN (Esther). Thinking Critically About World Wide Web 
Resources.www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/college/instruct/critical.htm 
3. Devshed-Mysql. www.devshed.com/Server_Side/MySQL 
4. Learning Perl Made Easy!! http://ucat.ncsi.iisc.ernet.in/ tutorial/perl 
/perlmain.html 


Web-based company directories: A case study with IT industry

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Web-based company directories: A case study with IT industry

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