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Powerize Your Business Research

Business information site offers profiles on more than 32 million companies, and that's just the beginning.

By Anne Fischer Lent, PCWorld   

The company was founded in 1997, but its business research site has just recently started experiencing real growth. Membership has quintupled since last November, bringing the total of registered members to more than 200,000.

Powerize.com is loaded with business information culled from more than 10,000 publications and other sources, although you have to pay to view a good chunk of it. Much like Hoovers.com, Powerize features the information you need to research a stock, or get background information on a prospective or current customer, your competition, or an entire industry. Membership is free, but you are billed on a pay-per-view basis for over 7000 resources, including brand-name newspapers, magazines, trade journals, and newswires.

Powerize says it has a patent pending on its unique business model. The Web site features information about more than 11 million public and private companies in the U.S. and abroad, and claims to have the largest collection of business information on the Web.

Free, downloadable Powerize software lets you search more than 32 million company profiles, news stories, research reports, market analyses, and other documents while you're checking other sources with your favorite search engine. According to Powerize, the software will find links to scads of sites that aren't searchable through the major search engines.

In addition to all the business information that can be gleaned, members can also purchase discounted magazines from the Magazine Stand. Through a partnership with enews.com, Powerize members can subscribe to more than 850 magazines in categories such as business and finance, computers and technology, and arts and entertainment.

Powerize plans to add new features, including e-mailed updates on specific industries such as banking, computers, energy, healthcare, media, pharmaceuticals, and telecommunications. In addition, the site plans to offer company e-mail alerts, which will deliver specific company headlines to your mailbox on a regular basis. Powerize also plans to add a Web-based e-mail feature for members.