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Posted by Michael Branham on June 28, 1998 at 22:29:36:
In Reply to: Re: Business Databases on CD-ROM posted by Linda A. Schaible on June 28, 1998 at 17:43:53:
In 1996, ABI produced wonderful program simply called American Yellow Pages on CD-ROM. It enabled the user to search by all of the criteria listed in the previous message (primary and secondary SIC up to 6 digits, area code, zip code, county, city, etc). I think the CD was priced at $59.95 -- and the user could create and print an unlimited number of lists.
Then ABI figured out they could make more money by scaling down the CD to where the user could conduct basic searches but not create highly specific lists directly from the disc. The 1997 edition was a big disappointment for anyone who was 'spoiled' by the array of features in '96 -- but at least you could still print the records with the phone numbers intact. But this year, ABI eliminated that feature as well.
Now you have to order complete records at an additional charge. And unfortunately, I think ABI has acquired all of their major competitors -- so the age of 'do-it-yourself list generation' came and went in about one year's time. Hoover's and ZD provide industry-specific CDs for the 'do-it-yourselfer' but I'm not aware of anything on CD that covers 'ALL' businesses. So for the time being, lists are still the domain of brokers and pay-per-record services like iMarket/D&B.
Linda is right. iMarket is probably the best resource available.
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Business Databases on CD-ROM