What every CPA firm needs to know.

• Author: Lang, Eva M.

About Keeping Up With New Internet Resources

The Internet is a rich resource for information. Changes in how this information is distributed continue with innovations and advances in technology. This article describes some relatively new developments that offer additional information resources to CPA firms. The author is an authority on acquiring and distributing information and is the author (along with Jan Tudor) of The Best Websites for Financial Professionals (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons). This article is based on Ms. Lang's presentation entitled "Internet Research: Tips and Techniques," given at the AICPA National Business Valuation Conference, November 8, 2004.

Internet content and ways to access it are constantly changing. Nevertheless, many practitioners keep using the same sites year after year. In 1999, speaking to a group of business appraisers, I asked for a show of hands to see who was using Google. At that time, it was unusual to find more than a handful of people who had heard of Google. That has changed. Now everyone seems to know about Google. Still, many are as oblivious to the existence of new search tools today as they were to Google in 1999.

Interested in finding the next Google? Keep up with news about technology advances. See the box below for some Internet Web sites that can help keep you up to date.

Finding the Next Google

Here are some technology news sources to help you keep up on innovations and advances:

* Tech News from the Washington Post (www.technews.com)

* BusinessWeek Technology (www.businessweek.com/technology)

* Wall Street Journal Personal Technology (http://ptech.wsj.com)

Blogs

One of the most interesting new technologies on the Internet is blogs. The number of blogs has mushroomed from a dozen or so available in 1999. To understand the blog phenomenon, let's look at what a blog is and how it is different from a regular Web page.

A blog (short for Web log) is a listing of journal entries in reverse chronological order. Blogs typically consist of commentary by the blogger that accompanies links to other blogs or online resources. Most bloggers use self-publishing software that enables them to update the content regularly and easily. Blogs can be open to public viewing or limited to a private group. They are different from a regular Web page in format in that they are typically text entries containing few graphics. Moreover, blogs are created with blogging software that is Web-based, free, and simple...