Finally! Reverse Address Search is Available on DAPlus.

Now you can reverse search off an address to find the relevant person, thanks to Directory Assistance Plus!

Directory Assistance Plus Expands To Include Canadian Listings!

Now you can use DAPlus to search for people and businesses in Canada. We have added over 20 million people and 1.2 million businesses to our file, making us one of the most comprehensive online data providers on the web.

Business Photos Appearing on DAPlus

Directory Assistance Plus has poised itself as one of the first wave of sites to add photographs of businesses to its database. This project, which has been in existence for over two years, is quickly escalating and promises to provide users with reliable digital images of the businesses in their area and beyond. The images allow users to look beyond the advertisement and get a true sense of the size and location of a business by looking directly at its storefront. This exciting new feature is currently available only in select markets, but over the next two years it will move to cover most major metropolitan areas.

Find a Doctor with Directory Assistance Plus!

DAPlus now offers a way to search US doctors and dentists by name, practice name, location and even specialty. Looking for a pediatrician in Pittsburgh? DAPlus will give you a complete list with the name, address, and phone number of each provider. Find a doctor can search by 24 different medical specialties, as well as 8 dental specialties, making it a comprehensive search tool.

Directory Assistance Plus Adds Zip Code Lookup Feature

InfoUSA’s popular online directory assistance provider DAPlus has just unveiled a new zip code lookup feature that allows users to find the correct zip code for any street address in the US. The new function allows everyone the ability to find or confirm the zip codes for their friends and family, and thereby helps ensure the efficient delivery of letters and packages. The tool is especially useful to those who are sending out large volumes of mail, such as wedding invitations or Christmas cards and find that their address book is not complete. In addition to the comprehensive white pages database, the reverse zip code feature makes Directory Assistance Plus an invaluable tool for finding people.

Directory Assistance Plus adds Exclusive Information to Listings

Go beyond the name, address and phone number when looking for businesses. DAPlus is now the only online data provider to offer new “Exclusive Information” including the number of years in operation. Users can now make more educated decisions when looking for reputable businesses!

Polk City Directories Introduces Its New Website CityDirectory.Com

Polk City Directories division, the premier local and city directory publisher in the U.S., has released its new web site at CityDirectory.com. After conducting extensive personal interviews and observing actual customer usage of current Polk City Directories products, CityDirectory.com has been re-designed and upgraded with the customer in mind.

Many of the features that were found in its printed directories are now in an online tool. The new web site's many features include: -- Nationwide Business & Consumer Search:
Features a combined business and consumer search tool. This tool allows the user to search by Name, Street Address, Phone Number and Business Keyword or SIC Code to get results in
seconds. By using the "Nearby" or "Radius" search buttons, one can enhance the results with surrounding businesses and consumers. In addition, selected records can then be viewed,
printed or even plotted on a map.

-- Unlimited Sales Leads & Mailing Lists:
Choose from over 13 million businesses and 220 million consumers for any geographic area. The web site allows one to select by Employee Size, Sales Volume, Executive Contact, Income, or Home Value and then download the names onto Telemarketing files or Mailing Labels with unlimited use.

-- Contact Manager (No Extra Charge):
To enhance the web experience and add value to the web site, CityDirectory.com also includes a free Contact Manager that allows one to download prospects and current customer files
for better sales management. Contact Manager also has the ability to schedule follow-ups, store notes, view details, print labels and send e-mail messages or even put them on a map --- the uses are limitless with this valuable added management tool.

To allow prospects and current customers to "test drive" the new site, CityDirectory.com is offering a FREE 7-Day Trial, which includes 100 Free Sales Leads. No contracts, no cost and no obligation - the trial is free by just logging in to CityDirectory.com and clicking on the "FREE TRIAL" button.

In addition, Polk City Directories has continued to upgrade its sales force with personnel that are familiar with today's influx of technology in the workplace. This effort includes tapping into more college and university sources to find a high level of technical savvy and aggressive, goal oriented candidates. These new hires will complement the existing Polk City Directories field sales force, by increasing the capacity and skill level of the telesales operation in the company's Livonia, Michigan office.

infoUSA Signs Multi-Seat Sales Genie(R) to Large Companies

Multi-Seat Subscriptions Create Enterprise-Wide Prospecting Tool
OMAHA, Neb.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 31, 2005--infoUSA® (Nasdaq:IUSA - News), the leading provider of proprietary business and consumer databases and sales leads, today announced that large companies are starting to purchase multi-seat Sales Genie® subscriptions for several of their corporate locations. Most recently, the company signed over 100 multi-seat licenses with a leading security company and a premier software company. These companies will use Sales Genie® to create an enterprise-wide prospecting and marketing tool for their sales forces. In addition, the Sales Genie® embedded contact manager will provide greater efficiency and transparency within the entire sales process, as individual users will be able to track existing corporate relationships and marketing efforts. This will enable large sales forces operating in different locations to improve coordination and avoid duplication while building their local customer base.

Sales Genie® is infoUSA's premier online sales solution, generating unlimited sales leads from its databases of 14 million businesses and 250 million consumers, as well as 10 other proprietary databases. Subscribers have unparalleled functionality in selecting their criteria, sorting sales leads, previewing each lead in order to cherry pick their best prospects and downloading their selections. There is no limit to the amount of searches customers can generate using a wide range of criteria. The Sale Genie® customer management software hosts the subscriber's entire database of leads/prospects, enabling the customer to quickly and easily target, track and map sales prospects.
Vin Gupta, Chairman and CEO, infoUSA, commented, "We are thrilled with this opportunity to offer Sales Genie® to large companies with multiple users and locations. This proves how versatile and scalable the Sales Genie® solution is - it is valuable to businesses of all sizes from a sole proprietor to a Fortune 500 corporation. With the introduction of multi-seat licenses we have greatly expanded our potential market opportunity to over 30 million users."
For more information on creating a multi-seat Sale Genie® http://www.salesgenie.com solution for your company, contact John Copenhaver, 402/593-4572 or email john.copenhaver@infousa.com.

infoUSA To Expand Its International Markets

Our OneSource Division to Upgrade its Global Business Database and Distribution
OMAHA, Neb.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 1, 2005--infoUSA® (Nasdaq:IUSA - News), the leading provider of proprietary business and consumer databases and sales leads, today announced it is expanding globally through its OneSource subsidiary. The company has a greater focus now on the expansion and enhancement of its international database content. In addition, the company is proactively marketing its database products and applications in newer markets outside of U.S. and Canada.

infoUSA is now upgrading its international business databases by expanding its own compilation efforts in its state-of-the-art, 200,000 square feet compilation center with 700 full time content specialists in Omaha, Nebraska. infoUSA has also partnered with hundreds of content providers around the world. Comprehensive database includes information on 1.1 million large public and private non-U.S. companies in approximately 170 countries. This is in addition to 14 million U.S. businesses and 17 million U.S. executives. Not only is there more comprehensive coverage representing every country in the world, but there is also more depth to each company record. For example, there are over 2.2 million executives represented in its non-U.S. global database, which is constantly updated using 2,500 daily news sources to track changes like executive changes, mergers and acquisitions, and late breaking company news. infoUSA is also putting great emphasis on more comprehensive financial information and regulatory filings. Examples include SEC filings, annual reports, analyst and industry reports, and detailed corporate family structure.
As the company has enhanced its international databases, infoUSA is now aggressively going after high growth, emerging markets in Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Australia, and South American regions. Using London as its international headquarters, infoUSA recently has opened sales offices in Hong Kong, New Delhi, Sydney, and Singapore. The company plans to open more sales locations in France, Germany, Italy, Scandinavia, China, Japan, South Korea, and South America. OneSource is currently the primary database application that will be offered in these international markets.
Vin Gupta, Chairman and CEO, infoUSA, commented, "Our OneSource global business database is a "must have" service for multinational corporations that are operating globally."

SPAM comments

I have already removed a few, but you are going to find that some people post SPAM comments on our site just so they can get more traffic. Part of the maintenance of a BLOG is removing these SPAM or off-topic comments so the real readers are not cofused or annoyed by comments that are not relavant.

JIM

InfoUSA Enhances Business Credit Site

InfoUSA added features to its Credit.net web site
subscription service, which provides unlimited business credit
reports on 14 million businesses, the company said yesterday.

These new features include hot links to business URLs, related
company news and mapping. The mapping feature also contains a
complete list of corporate "neighbors."

The subscription service still costs $75 monthly and provides unlimited access.
For full length article on DMNews.com.

Credit.net Photos added to records

We have been adding picture to some records with a goal of having a photo of every business in the US. We think that this will add a sense of legitimacy to several businesses and also serve as something more to differentiate us from our competitors.

A few questions for you:
1) Do you think this adds value to our product?
2) Is this a service that you would be willing to pay for if we were to charge a nominal monthly fee?
3) Do you think a video of the business would be more helpful than a picture?

infoUSA news site

I found this today. It is a resouces that includes many news topics about infoUSA. The site is called Topix.net.

It draws from reputable sources like Forbes and btbonline, as well as local sites like The Lincoln Star Journal.

Seems to be a pretty good source of information.

test blog

Hey all,

This is a blog that I set up so we can all see what Blogs are all about. Please read my posts and post comments so we can get some feedback. The idea is for people to see how easy it is for infoUSA users to make comments based upon our postings. I will try to add a few more posts so you have more to choose from, but I need feedback

BLOG Presentation

AGENDA

What is a Blog?
–Who is using them?

Why have a Blog?
–What can Blogs do?

Types of Blogs
–A wide variety for a range of purposes

Questions we need to ask ourselves
–Does infoUSA even need a Blog? If so what type?
–How the heck do we get started?

General Info for infoUSA
–Costs? Benefits to us?
–How much work will it be to maintain?
–What should I put in my Blog?

What is a Blog?
-Blog (short for WebLog)
-Quick and easy way for people to communicate on the web
-Great way to get around static web pages
–Very easy to post and maintain – no content push needed
-Customer feedback tool
–A new infoUSA community may develop
-Replaces need for Press Releases

Here are some corporate blogs:
–Boeing's CEO blog - http://boeing.com/randy/
–Dell/Linux - http://linux.dell.com/blog/
–GM - http://fastlane.gmblogs.com/
–eBay - http://ebaynews.blogs.com/
–Simply Hired - http://blog.simplyhired.com/
–Yahoo - http://ysearchblog.com/
–Sun employee blog - http://blogs.sun.com/roller/main.do
–Microsoft - http://www.microsoft.com/communities/blogs/PortalHome.mspx
–Intel President's blog - http://www.primidi.com/2005/02/16.html
–Cisco - http://www.cisco.com/gov/blog/

What is a Blog?Simple Explanation
-Blogs are simply text posting
–They can also include links to other sites, relevant articles, and photos
–Posting is as easy as typing an email

-Posts are listed sequentially so readers can easily follow the history of your postings
–Some people come back to Blogs on a daily basis to see any new entries/feedback

-Entries can be easily added, deleted, edited
–Comments from readers can also be accepted

Why have a Blog?
-Foster a Dialogue with Customers and Potential Customers
–Learn what paying and potential customer like and dislike about our products/pricing
–Can serve as a virtual focus group

-Establish a Reputation for Expertise
–Customers and clients trust experts
–We know our products better than anyone

-Increase Website Traffic
–Use the Blog as a funnel back to the corporate website
–Improve presence and placement with Search Engines

-Manage the Corporate Image
–Help put a human face on our company
–Remind customers your company is made up of real people

-Easy to Create and Maintain
–No need to involve web development
–Can be updated as often as we like without additional cost and very little time

-Control Your Brand
–Gather information and opinions of your business
–Responding to comments extends our brands

Types of Blogs There are a Variety
-Personal
–People posting picture and text about their family lives and travel exploits

-Company
–Works like a brochure site with general info on the company
–Typically limited to content about the company itself

-Product
–Specifically promote items or services
–Probably best for infoUSA

-Brand
–Communicate marketing messaging
–Extend band into new markets

Questions we need to ask ourselvesCrucial to Moving Forward

-Does infoUSA even need a Blog?
–Yes, it would be a valuable tool for us

-What is the goal of our blog?
–Encourage a community of user to share ideas
–Communicate new features and benefits of products

-What do we hope to accomplish/learn?
–Product feedback, pricing issues, bugs

-What type of Blog is best for infoUSA
–Product-specific, one for each GM

-Should Vin maintain his own?
–Probably not, but he should chime in occasionally with his thoughts

More Important QuestionsBottom Line
-What are the costs of operating a Blog?
–Most Blog sites are free to set up and run
–Free to maintain and update
–No immediate need to pay during the learning process

-What are the benefits?
–Increased traffic to corporate sites
–Virtual focus group
–Build an infoUSA community/increase site stickiness
–Higher visibility and placement on search engines
–Market feedback
–Better reach and visibility on our Press Releases

-How much work is it to maintain?
–You get out of it what you put into it
–The more often it is updated, the more likely you will get return traffic
–From a techincal standpoint it requires no dev time once it is up and running
–Each GM can take control of their own Blog and delegate updates of content

-What should go into my product Blog?
–Product updates
–Feature enhancements
–Marketing tips
–Usage cheats/hacks
–Database updates

Summary
-Blogs can be a useful and powerful tool for most businesses
-It is an easy way to gather free product feedback and helps to build a sense of community
-Blogs are cost effective and easy to start and maintain

Next Steps
-Need to get buy in on Blog concept
–Do we agree it is a good idea?

-Decide what kind of Blog and how many we want
–Product-specific and one for each product?

-Determine who will be responsible for maintaining them
–GMs??

-Choose who to go with to start our Blogs