ReferenceUSA Update

The account rep from ReferenceUSA visited last week and I’d just like to share some of the things he showed us.

Downloading records in custom format has been improved. Instead of a data dump that you had to clean up in excel, you can now select the data elements you want in the report.

In the business records, a down arrow in the “Corporate Family Tree” column indicates the parent company and the availability of a list of affiliates.

You can quickly get a list of neighborhood companies with a “Radius” search. Pull up a report on a particular company and in the address information, there will be a link to “Radius.” You can choose to show all businesses or all businesses in the same SIC code for any radius from 1/10th of a mile to 20 miles from the company’s location.

Some other notes from the meeting:
Prefer Explorer with this database; some tables do not display well in Firefox
When searching the yellow pages headings use the plural form of words
In the residential database the “Neighborhood Information” is from the 2000 Census
Residential data is updated annually, only with the publication of a new phone book
Business records are updated from one to four times a year, depending on company size
Anyone can send corrections to the records which will be verified and uploaded within 6 to 8 weeks.