Business Information: key web resources and search strategies

TFPL, London, 8th March 2016 – EDITED VERSION

Facilitator: Karen BlakemanRBA Information Services

Karen.Blakeman@rba.co.uk

http://www.rba.co.uk/

twitter.com/karenblakeman

Key issues in business information and search

EU “right to be forgotten”

More government information and documents supposedly being moved to www.gov.uk - increasing amount of information going missing

More official data being made available as open data including Companies House - possible quality and accessibility issues

More free become subscription or PAYG, services acquired by other companies or closing

Google knows best!- major changes to how it analyses and runs your search- rewriting your search is standard- results increasingly device dependent

Information is NOT removed from the web, only the link to information in the search results

Not automatic – subject has to apply to have links that point to specific information about themselves removed from the results

Request is assessed to see if the information is “inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant, or excessive in relation to the purposes for which they were processed.”

Applies to all search engines, not just Google

Initially only searches conducted in the EU + Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Lichtenstein but other countries/regions (Japan, Canada, Russia) introducing legislation01/05/2023 www.rba.co.uk 3

“Right to be forgotten”

“Right to be forgotten”

Google Agrees To Complicated Worldwide "Right To Be Forgotten" Censorship Plan http://searchengineland.com/google-to-censor-worldwide-sorta-243938

Example: someone in Germany has a link to information about them removed from search results. For those searching for that person:

– Listing censored for those in Germany, using ANY version of Google– Listing censored for those in the EU, using a European version of

Google– Listing NOT censored for those outside Germany but within the EU,

using non-European versions of Google– Listing NOT censored for those outside the EU, using ANY version

of Google

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“Right to be forgotten” - implications for the searcher

Use proxy servers, VPNs or search tools such as Startpage to mask your geographical location – but won’t work if/when links are removed globally

Remember, the information on the person is still on the web but links to it may not appear in your search results

Need to be aware of sources that could contain the information– Newspapers– Company directories/registers for directorship information– Insolvency databases– People databases/networks – for example LinkedIn,

Researchgate– Social media – Twitter, Google+, Facebook

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UK Parliament http://www.parliament.uk/

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Monitoring progress of legislationhttp://services.parliament.uk/bills/2014-15/infrastructure.html

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Welsh Government http://gov.wales/

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http://www.assembly.wales/

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The Scottish Government http://www.gov.scot/

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The Northern Ireland Assembly http://www.niassembly.gov.uk/

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http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/webarchive/

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http://www.legislation.gov.uk/

Launched in 2010Not all legislation has been updatedPending updates are flagged

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Wayback Machine http://www.archive.org/

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They work for you http://www.theyworkforyou.com/

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WhatDoTheyKnow - Freedom of Information (FOI) requests https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/

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Business information - general starting points

Business Sources (RBA Information Services) http://www.rba.co.uk/sources/

Business Advice | Business Resources http://www.bl.uk/bipc/

British Library Business & IP Centre in London Industry guides http://www.bl.uk/bipc/dbandpubs/Industry guides/industry.html

BL - Business Essentials on the Web http://bl-business-essentials.wikispaces.com/

Library & Information Service ICAEW http://www.icaew.com/en/library (some information restricted to members)

SCOTBIS (Scottish Business Information Service) http://scotbis.nls.uk/

Buslib-L – discussion list for business librarians and researchers– http://list1.ucc.nau.edu/archives/buslib-l.html (login required)– FAQs at https://sites.google.com/site/busliblistserv/

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Company Information

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Legal Forms & Company Extensions

A Guide to Legal Forms for Social Enterprise https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/31677/11-1400-guide-legal-forms-for-social-enterprise.pdf [Some details out of date]

A Guide to Legal Forms for Business https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/31676/11-1399-guide-legal-forms-for-business.pdf [some details out of date]

CorporateInformation.com - Company Extensions and Security Identifiers http://www.corporateinformation.com/Company-Extensions-Security-Identifiers.aspx [does not appear to be updated]

Types of business entity http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Types_of_business_entity

Company Formation Survey http://www.offshoreinvestment.com/

Doing Business - Measuring Business Regulations - World Bank Group http://www.doingbusiness.org/01/05/2023 www.rba.co.uk 20

UK Companies House– https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/companies-house - free

documents– Database still at http://wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk/ - documents £1

each

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UK Companies House

Service offering all data free of charge at http://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/

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Companies House History

Companies House daily bulk data files

http://download.companieshouse.gov.uk/en_accountsdata.html Bulk data – all or nothingLarge daily files available as zipped filesNo support provided – you’re on your own!

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Companies House free bulk data

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Each file within the zipped file is a separate document. Note the uninformative file names!

Company Check – Hotel Chocolat

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Company Check – Hotel Chocolat

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Company Check – Hotel Chocolat

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Company Check - directors

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Office of the Regulator of Community Interest Companies https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/office-of-the-regulator-of-community-interest-companies

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Mutual societies - Financial Conduct Authority http://www.fca.org.uk/firms/firm-types/mutual-societies

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UK Companies Beneficial Ownership Register

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Public register of UK companies' beneficial owners due to begin in June 2016 http://www.out-law.com/en/articles/2015/november/public-register-of-uk-companies-beneficial-owners-due-to-begin-in-june-2016/

Charity Commission – does not include Scotland

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https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/charity-commission

http://apps.charitycommission.gov.uk/Showcharity/RegisterOfCharities/registerhomepage.aspx

The Charity Commission for Northern Ireland https://www.charitycommissionni.org.uk/

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OSCR Scottish Charity Regulator http://www.oscr.org.uk/

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Scotland's charity regulator (OSCR) plans to publish charity accounts http://www.fundraising.co.uk/2015/02/09/scotlands-charity-regulator-oscr-plans-publish-charity-accounts/

VAT number validation and EU VAT rates

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VAT number validationVIES http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/vieshome.do

EU VAT rates - essential if a seller is subject to the new VAT MOSS ruleshttp://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/resources/documents/taxation/vat/how_vat_works/rates/vat_rates_en.pdf

The Gazette | Official Public Record https://www.thegazette.co.uk/

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OpenCorporates http://opencorporates.com/

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OpenCorporates http://opencorporates.com/

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European Business Register

Gateway to official company information in 27 European countries (24 online) http://www.ebr.org Different suppliers depending on countryUK supplier is Kompany http://www.kompany.com

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kompany http://www.kompany.com/

Covers Europe, US, Canada, Russia, AustraliaOfficial registry information plus credit reports

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Legalinx 7side http://home.legalinx.co.uk/

Priced service UK companies and documents, directors information, insolvency reportsCredit reportsInternational registry and documents service

– 1 hour registry and documents service http://home.legalinx.co.uk/products-services/international-company-information

– translation service available– have agents "on the ground", can quickly tell you what is

available in that country and what may not be available

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PrivCo Private Company Financial Intelligencehttp://www.privco.com/Subscription service, also single report purchase ($199)

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Company information – some additional priced services

Bureau van Dijk (BvD) http://www.bvdinfo.com/

CRO Info - http://www.croinfo.co.uk/

Dun and Bradstreet http://www.dnb.co.uk/

Experian UK http://www.experian.co.uk/

Factiva http://www.factiva.com/

LexisNexis http://www.lexisnexis.com/

Perfect Information - http://www.perfectinfo.com/

Thomson Reuters - http://thomsonreuters.com/

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Examples of problem areas for the researcher

Switzerland– only banks, insurance companies and companies traded on the

Swiss stock exchange are required to provide financial statements

Cayman Islands– “The Registrar of Companies can only release the name and

type of company, its date of registration, the address of the registered office and the company’s status. Disclosing any other information is prohibited unless requested by a law enforcement agency.”

British Virgin Islands– “A company is not required to file its register of directors, register

of members, register of charges or an annual return with the BVI Registrar of Corporate Affairs.”

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Google street viewCan be useful for assessing location of a business, but remember images may be out of date, no indication of day of the week, time of day

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Publicly traded companies – share prices

Free– current share prices delayed by 15-30 minutes– real-time prices if you have a share dealing account with a

broker e.g. TD Direct Investing (http://www.tddirectinvesting.co.uk/)

– only cover companies currently listed on the exchange– some historical data as charts or figures (e.g. Yahoo Finance

and Google Finance)– Yahoo and Google cover major stock markets– go direct to the stock exchange web site

Priced– for more detailed analysis– full historical data– stocks no longer traded or merged with another company

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Share prices

Yahoo Finance (major stock markets only)– http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/

Google finance (US, UK, Canada, some European stock markets, Australia, Hong Kong, China)

– http://www.google.co.uk/finance– http://www.google.com/finance

FT.com – Markets, Equities section

Priced services – Reuters, Thomson Reuters DataStream, Bloomberg

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Yahoo Finance

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Google Finance

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What you need to know about Google

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Google now using artificial intelligence as part of search - RankBrain

Tries to make “sense” of your search and put it into context, natural language queries, uses what others have searched and clicked

Constantly changing – all bets are off when it comes to predicting what your results will look like

How you ask your question is taken into account, device you are using is taken into account

Personalises results

Providing Quick Answers and “facts”, extracts from websites giving you the “answer”

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Google now tells you which terms it has ignored (some of the time)

“..” around terms, phrases, names, titles of documents does not always work

To force an exact match and inclusion of a term in a search prefix it with ‘intext:’

intext:agricultural occupational asthma

Use Verbatim for an exact match search

Google rewrites your search

Google – missing terms

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Google – using intext:

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Google Verbatim

Think file format

– PDF for research documents, government reports, industry papers– ppt or pptx for presentations, tracking down an expert on a topic– xls or xlsx for spreadsheets containing data

Use the advanced search screen or the filetype: command UK waste vegetable oil energy generation regulations

filetype:pdf UK waste vegetable oil energy generation regulations

filetype:pptUK waste vegetable oil energy generation regulations filetype:pptxUK waste vegetable oil energy generation filetype:xls UK waste vegetable oil energy generation filetype:xlsx

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Google site:site: to search within a site or type of sitewaste vegetable oil energy generation site:gov.ukwaste vegetable oil energy generation site:www.gov.ukwaste vegetable oil energy generation site:assembly.wales waste vegetable oil energy generation site:ac.uk

Can exclude sites using -site:agricultural occupational asthma UK site:gov.uk –site:hse.gov.uk

Does NOT search inside databases or protected areas

Can combine with filetype:waste vegetable oil energy generation site:wales filetype:pdf

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Date Restrict your results to information that has been published within the last hour, day, week, month, year or your own date rangeSearch tools, Any time and select an option 

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More Google commands

Numeric range search

Anything to do with numbers and quantities: years, temperatures, weights, distances, prices etc

Type in your two numbers separated by two full stops as part of your search. Can include a unit of measurement. top 50..100 petroleum companies market capitalisation

UK alzheimer’s forecast 2020..2030

toblerone 1..5 kg

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Statistics, Industry and Market Data

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British Library Business & IP Centre in London Industry guides http://www.bl.uk/bipc/dbandpubs/Industry%20guides/industry.html

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PDFs

Number of sectors covered

Resources include publications and databases at the BL but also freely accessible websites

http://www.offstats.auckland.ac.nz/

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Google Public Data Explorer

http://www.google.com/publicdata/One of Google's best kept secrets!

Public data sets made available by Eurostat, World Bank, IMF, CSO Ireland, OECD, ITU, some national statistics offices (but not ONS), and many more.

Source and date updated given.

Charts and charting options can highlight oddities and missing data

Look at the charts to see if there is a sudden change in the trends.

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UK National Statistics https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/announcements

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Office for National Statistics (ONS) http://www.ons.gov.uk/

StatsWales http://statswales.wales.gov.uk/

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data.gov.uk http://data.gov.uk/

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European Union - Open Data Portal http://open-data.europa.eu/open-data/

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Quandl Financial and Economic Data http://www.quandl.com/

Zanran

http://www.zanran.com/ Zanran – great for data in tables, charts and graphs http://www.rba.co.uk/wordpress/2013/01/25/zanran-great-for-data-in-tables-charts-and-graphs/

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Statista http://www.statista.com/

“The Statistics Portal for Market Data, Market Research and Market Studies” – 60,000 topics from over 18,000 sources– http://www.statista.com/topics/– some information free, registration (free) required – Chart of the day https://www.statista.com/chartoftheday/

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ReportLinker http://www.reportlinker.com/

Searches free and priced reports and dataSome information displayed free of chargeTo download or view the public reports there is a charge

– £49 for a one day access– £69 for monthly access (recurring charge unless you cancel it)

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Finding market research - aggregators

Pull together reports from many publishers and make them searchable through a single interface

Can purchase reports through the one service

Aggregators may not be comprehensive– publishers may embargo reports for weeks or months– publishers may withhold some reports from aggregators – check the publisher’s own web site or email them to see if there

is additional or more recent research available– may get a better deal by going to the publisher direct– use aggregators as an index to see who is publishing on your

topic

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Examples of market research aggregators

Alacrastore– http://www.alacrastore.com/

Marketresearch.com– http://www.marketresearch.com/

Report Buyer– http://www.reportbuyer.com/

Research and Markets– http://www.researchandmarkets.com/

Profound - Market Intelligence– http://www.profound.com/

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News, Social Media, Professional Networks

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Free news

For tracking down individual newspapers– http://www.abyznewslinks.com/– World Newspaper Directory http://www.onlinenewspapers.com/

Google News – advanced search options limited and not always reliable– no source list and sources frequently change– key industry publications may not be included and definitely not

included if subscription

Use Google news and web search to identify specialist news portals or aggregators for your subject and monitor those direct

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Search National UK Newspapers http://www.philb.com/nationaluknewspapers.html

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Examples of priced services

The Times http://www.thetimes.co.uk/ £12 for 12 weeks then £6/week. 3 month minimum term

FT http://www.ft.com/ - Limited number of free articles/month. Subscription starts at £5.35/month

The Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ Limited number of free articles/month. Subscription starts at £10/month (£100 annually)

Factiva Factiva - Dow Jones http://www.dowjones.com/products/product-factiva/

Nexis | LexisNexis Business Insight Solutions http://bis.lexisnexis.co.uk/products/nexis

Research - Articles - HighBeam Research https://www.highbeam.com/ $299.95 a year or $29.95 a month

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Video – Google video vs YouTube

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Google video not the same as Youtube

Google VideoYouTube

Bing video

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Social and professional networks

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LinkedIn.com

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Researchgate.net

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Slideshare.net

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Facebook - Search is Back! https://searchisback.com/

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Social Searcher http://www.social-searcher.com/

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Social Searcher - analytics

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Meltwater Icerocket blogs trend tool www.icerocket.com/c?p=trend

Boardreader - Forum Search Engine http://boardreader.com/

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Twitter Search http://search.twitter.com/

Advanced Twitter search - https://twitter.com/search-advanced

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Use advanced Twitter search commands

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See also the free guide on Searching Twitter at http://www.rba.co.uk/search/TwitterSearch.shtml

Evaluating the information you find – CRAAP test

http://www.informationliteracy.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/evaluating_info_new1_20-1-16.pdf

Currency - When was it published, updated? Is up to date information important?

Relevance - Does it fit in with the needs of your project

Authority - Who has published the information – individual/organisation? Do you trust them? What else have they written? Further information about them? Who is behind the website?

Accuracy - Is the information correct? Check with an independent source (may not be easy or even possible)

Purpose - Why does the page/site exist? Activist site? Selling a product/service? Revenue from advertising?

Domain names

Type of web site for example:– gov.uk, ac.uk, .gov, .edu

Domain name, who owns it, type of organisationhttp://whois.domaintools.com/

Blogs not always identifiable by URL e.g. abc.blogspot.com, abc.wordpress.com. Domain names cheap and easy to apply to a blog

Do some research on “experts” to see what else they have written and where. Researchgate.net, LinkedIn, Slideshare

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Domaintools check on rba.co.uk

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Fake pages/sites, hoaxes, scams

Latest Email and Social Media Hoaxes - Current Internet Scams - Hoax-Slayer http://www.hoax-slayer.com/ https://www.facebook.com/pages/Hoax-Slayer/69502133435

The Museum of Hoaxes http://hoaxes.org/

Snopes - Rumour has it http://www.snopes.com/ Snopes Field Guide to Fake News Sites and Hoax Purveyors http://www.snopes.com/2016/01/14/fake-news-sites/

Phil Bradley's weblog: Fake Facebook page - amazing example http://philbradley.typepad.com/phil_bradleys_weblog/2013/09/fake-facebook-page-amazing-example.html

Snake oil, retracted, how to create a hoax

Identify hoaxes via debunking sites or include fake, hoax or scam in your search strategy

Retraction Watch - Tracking retractions as a window into the scientific http://retractionwatch.com/

An example of a “demonstration” hoax: I Fooled Millions Into Thinking Chocolate Helps WeightLoss. Here's How.

http://io9.com/i-fooled-millions-into-thinking-chocolate-helps-weight-1707251800

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And finally..... Per capita consumption of cheese (US) correlates with Number of people who died by becoming tangled in their bedsheets http://www.tylervigen.com/view_correlation?id=7

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