In the world of business, knowing your competitors’ strategies before competing is crucial in plans to win the battle. With this knowledge, you can always stay ahead of your competitors.  The Internet is a gateway to an array of competitive intelligence.  Let me share a few with you.

SpyFu.com

SpyFu allows you to spy on your online competitors. All you have to do is type in the keywords to know what your competitors are up to. This competitive research tool monitors approximately 4.5 million domains. Be prepared to find information how much your competitors are paying for and advertisement and the total number of clicks received for their ads.  And the best part is you get to enjoy this information at no cost.

Google Alerts

Again at no cost, employ Google to be your faithful spy.  Sign-up for Google Alerts and enter the keywords to what you would want to track. Thereafter, based on your preferred notification frequency you will have updated competitive intelligence sent to your mailbox. Not only does it monitor your competitor’s movement, you could also have first hand knowledge about what is being said about your own company.

Way Back Machine

Way Back Machine, a tool that allows you to see the history of your competitors. Observe what has changed and the things that have stayed consistent through the years. You may be able to gain insights to what strategy works and what does not. You can also review the changes of your own company. This is one convenient way of obtaining internal information when the predecessors have left the company. Learning from experience will save you from unnecessary strategy misfortunes.

Niche Watch

By typing detailed technical information on Niche Watch, you will get the top 20-competitor analysis.  The analysis includes information such as the number of backlinks to the page and to the domain, number of pages indexed in Google, keyword occurrences and page rank, all in anchor, all in title and text rank for both domain and webpage information

Popularity: 24% [?]

Conventional social networking has been replaced slowly by social networking sites. Making friends no longer stays in the boundary of schools. Circle of friends is spreading to every part of the world by just a click on the buttons displayed. The main function of social networking sites is to connect people from around the world who share common friends, fraternity and even interests.
The current most popular social networking site is Facebook, a site that becomes an overnight serendipitous craze among young people. The best feature in Facebook is online games that lured people to sign up. Before Facebook appeared, it was Friendster and MySpace that ruled the online communities. Mass migration of online users to sites with better quality music and video capability is inevitable since users are only seeking for entertainment. Furthermore, young people always love fresh new interesting sites to pass their leisure time.
Virtual communities in online universe serve as huge market for lucrative business. Sites with high portfolio attract giant advertising companies to invest in such sites. The exponential increment of users of social networking sites cannot be ignored by far-sighted business people. Popular users of social networking sites like Xanga and Blogger are endorsed to boost business sales. In some bizarre cases, this also creates a path for fortunate users into entertainment business.
Although social networking sites seems like the best rendezvous for old friends, it is a myth that social networking sites strengthen relationships. Rumours are easily circulated in such sites to tarnish one’s reputation. In some extreme cases, online scams are mushrooming to dupe gullible people. Even spreading computer- corrupting virus is possible through the sites.
Therefore, it is up to the users’ judgment on whether social networking sites are harmful or not. The long- term success of such sites is determined by users whether they here to stay or just a fad.

Popularity: 30% [?]

One might think that it is impossible to search for someone in the U.S. This almost-impossible task seems like finding a needle in the proverbial haystack. The reason to find someone could come from an endless list, from assembling family tree to looking for a missing child, and fortunately there are a lot of ways that you can utilize to find the person that you are looking for.
Online people finder and search engines can make a lot of difference in your search. With these tools, you could save a lot of money and time in your search, in comparison to the conventional searching methods. The only fee that you would need to pay is for the service and maybe the account registration. Sites like Zaba Search and White Pages are aimed at finding missing Americans by entering their relevant information on the sites. This method usually gets high success rate if correct and extensive information is entered onto the sites.
There are of course some free alternative but websites that charge higher fees are most probably the ones that have the higher success rates. These  sites are able to help you to search for someone in the U.S in lesser time, sometimes even without the detailed information of the person. Website like USA Record Search is able to find anything and anyone from scraps of information. This would mean that finding a person in a country with 50 states looks more feasible. You will, of course,  have to pay if the person is found unless the search engine shows zero result. Other than that, you can also get help from government sites to locate someone who is a government servant.
Advanced technology would mean that searching is easier in the U.S. Most Americans have an account in social networking sites such as Facebook, Friendster, Flickr and MySpace. Your search would be easier if the e-mail address of the person is known. Sometimes looking for mutual acquaintances of the person that you are looking for would lead to success too.
In conclusion, searching for someone in the U.S would be fairly easy if the correct tools are used. No matter which method you choose, the end results will prove to be the most important, as opposed to the methods used. The person that you looked for will, with the least doubt, appreciate your effort to search for them because it shows them of how much you care for them.

Popularity: 38% [?]

Thanks to technology and the ingenious creation of social networking websites such as Facebook, MySpace and Friendster. Such social networks give members the privilege to seek old buddies that was thought to have been lost forever. These websites not only connect people but also allow photo sharing, virtual gift sending and online interaction with members.

Once again, technology paves another way for us to keep in touch with old friends. The search engines. Just type their full name. This method may have been seen as if trying to look for a needle in a haystack but the blogging trend has given a new meaning to locating friends through the search engines. And if real names do not provide you positive results, try using their nicknames.

Finding your friends through public records could be another valuable method. WhitePages is one of the best public record database available online. All you have to do is enter the first and the last name, the city and the state of the person you are looking for and you will get a list of results. You need to be as specific as you can, if not you will just have to get through a long list before you get to the right person.

Another alternative is to check on the school alumni. Most of the alumni would have a website and if there aren’t any, just take a trip down memory lane. Go back to your school to get the contacts and while you are at it, pay your honorable teachers a visit. Find out which friends are active and give them a call. They will get you linked to others.

There’s actually a more simple and old-fashioned manner that could be of good use to find your schoolmates. Go and dig up your old phonebooks or diary books that you circulated around for the “before leaving school messages”. Call every phone number there is. Most likely you will get their parents on the line and through them your friends new contacts.

Popularity: 30% [?]