Auto Insurance & Car Insurance Quote Index

On October 23, 2006 Tom O'Keefe and TOKiBiz launched the Car Insurance Quote Index which is provides listings of insurance companies who provide auto insurance quotes for automobile insurance, motorcyle insurance, All Terrain Vehicle ATV insurance, boat insurance and recreational vehicle RV insurance.

Car Insurance Quote Index is divided into regions such as:

California Car Insurance and Los Angeles Car Insurance

Check it out at: http://www.carinsurancequoteindex.com

Google Notebooks

Just discovered Google Notebooks and with that created a few of my own at:

• Mortgage Refinancing
• Market Research
• Politics, Political News

Mortgage Database

On Tuesday July 18, 2006 Tom O'Keefe of Research Connect launched Refinancing Mortgage Info for mortgage brokers and companies to create a detailed profile about the mortgage services they offer. Categorized by city and state RMI is a tremendous resource for brokers and companies.

Refinancing Mortgage Info is free to use and free for brokers and companies to add their listings.

If you're a mortgage company or broker, you can submit your info at http://www.refinancingmortgageinfo.com/register.asp

LJ International Inc. (NASDAQ: JADE)

Fundamental Research has just published their Q4 2005 analysis of LJ International (JADE) to Research Connect.

This report is available for free download via:
http://www.researchconnect.com/downloadreport/report_13838.asp

Mortgage Refinancing Info

MortgageRefinancingInfo.com

Mortgage Refinancing Info is another site of note which lists articles and syndicated feeds covering the mortgage and real estate business.

Some of the topics covered include: 125 Equity Loans, Mortgage Refinancing, Mortgage Rates, Second Mortgage, Mortgage Loan, Mortgage Company, Reverse Mortgages, Mortgage Insurance, Fixed Mortgages, Commercial Mortgages and more.

http://www.refinancingmortgageinfo.com/

Business News & Political News

On a side note Tom O'Keefe has just launched a couple of interesting syndication sites. One is called Bizak.com and it focuses on business news and the other is The Political Current which focuses on political news.

Bizak.com

Bizak.com is an online directory of the best business websites, blogs and news sources.

Bizak.com syndicates leading websites covering financial news and business news covering Bonds, Business, Stock Market, Commodities, Dow Jones, Economics, ETFs, Futures, IPOs, Market Research, Mortgages, Real Estate, Nasdaq, NYSE, Options, Venture Capital and a lot more to come.

The Political Current

The Political Current is a directory of the best political websites, blogs and news sources.

The Political Current syndicates leading political news sources covering the 2008 Presidential Election, American Politics, Democrats, Government Jobs, Iraq War, Middle East, Political Blogs, Political Campaigns, Political Cartoons, Political Commentary, Political Issues, Political Media, Political Parties, State Politics, Political Research, US Government, Republicans, World Politics and much more to come.

Intel's (INTC) Digital Home

There is an interesting new report on Research Connect by DIGDIA entitled "Intel's Digital Home."

"It has been over a year since Intel created their new Digital Home Group. It has been much longer since the industry has been using the term Digital Home to describe the next big thing in consumer electronics. Intel is spending $200 million in strategic investments via Intel Capital alone. And, now they have launched their Viiv program with much fanfare and an even bigger budget.How are things progressing for Intel's Digital Home? Should they, and for that matter the industry be thinking of something different?

This strategic analysis paper describes some of the recent moves that Intel has been making. But the meat of this paper is found in the provocative analysis, conclusions and recommendations. To arrive at these conclusions the paper looks at Intel's Digital home with an "outside the box" point of view."

The report can be found at:
http://www.researchconnect.com/buyreport/report_13833.asp

Yahoo (YHOO) Purchase Acquisitions

In the research news section of Research Connect I started keeping a running tally of some of the biggest internet acquisitions over the last 10 years. This list doesn't include every purchase but I tried to include most of them. The section that I wrote about Yahoo is below. Additional acquisitions by Google (GOOG), eBay (EBAY) , AOL, Amazon.com (AMZN) and others can be found at:
http://www.researchconnect.com/current_comments_detail/cc_112.asp

Yahoo's (YHOO) Purchase Acquisitions

• September 1997 – Yahoo acquires Net Controls for $1.4 Million
• October 1997 – Yahoo purchases Four11 for $92 Million
• March 1998 – Yahoo purchases Classic Games
• June 1998 – Yahoo picks up ViaWeb for $49 Million
• July 1998 – Yahoo buys WebCal
• December 1998 – Yahoo acquires Yoyodyne for $29.6 Million
• December 1998 – Yahoo buys Sportacy
• January 1999 – Yahoo buys Hyperparellel for $8 Million
• February 1999 – Yahoo buys Log-Me-On for $10 Million
• May 1999 – Yahoo purchases GeoCities for $3.6 Billion
• May 1999 – Yahoo purchases Encompass for $130 Million
• June 1999 – Yahoo buys Online Anywhere for $80 Million
• July 1999 – Yahoo purchases Broadcast.com for $5.7 Billion
• November 1999 – Yahoo buys MyQuest
• March 2000 – Yahoo buys Arthas.com
• August 2000 – Yahoo acquires eGroups for $432 Million
• November 2000 – Yahoo purchases Kimo for $145 Million
• April 2001 – Yahoo buys Sold.com for $30 Million
• June 2001 – Yahoo acquires Launch Media for $12 Media
• January 2002 – Yahoo buys Hotjobs for $436 Million
• December 2002 – Yahoo buys Inktomi for $235 Million
• February 2003 – Yahoo buys Alltheweb for $100 Million
• October 2003 – Yahoo buys Overture for $1.63 Billion
• January 2004 – Yahoo acquires 3721
• April 2004 – Yahoo acquires Kelkoo for $579 Million
• October 2004 – Yahoo picks up MusicMatch for $160 Million
• March 2005 – Yahoo acquires Ludicorp Research (Flickr) for $40 Million
• June 2005 – Yahoo acquires Dialpad
• October 2005 – Yahoo picks up Upcoming.org

During the internet boom Yahoo made one of the biggest dot.com purchases ever with the $5.7 billion acquisition of Broadcast.com in July 1999. Broadcast.com was an online audio service created by Mark Cuban to stream live audio coverage of his favorite sporting events. Yahoo’s purchase of Broadcast.com made Cuban an internet legend, a billionaire and a future owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks. At the time of the purchase Broadcast.com was a publicly traded company (BCST) who saw its stock rise over $7 to $125 after the announcement.

Yahoo’s first acquisition was for Net Controls in September 1997 for $1.4 million. Yahoo acquired ViaWeb, a developer of web commerce tools, for $49 million in stock in June 1998. In October 1998 Yahoo began its quest for free email service with the purchase of Four11 (Four11 offered a free email service via a product called RocketMail) for $92 million in stock. Today Yahoo’s free email service accounts for 40% of its overall traffic – the largest driver of traffic to the Yahoo network. Yahoo announced its acquisition of Geocities in January 1999 for $3.6 billion.

Yahoo jumped into the marketing world with the purchase of Yoyodyne in October 1998 for $29.6 million in stock. Yoyodyne allowed Yahoo to collect user data and act as an intermediary between its users and commerce clients. Yahoo purchased its popular Launch music site with its acquisition of Launch Media in June 2001 for $12 million. In December 2001 Yahoo purchased the online job search company HotJobs for approximately $436 million. Inktomi was purchased in December 2002 for $235 million followed by Overture in July 2003 for $1.63 billion. In April 2004 Yahoo purchased Kelkoo, a European comparison shopping site, for $579 million.

China Economy and Research

There have been a number of terrific new China research reports uploaded to Research Connect over the last few months from firms such as Research in China, RocSearch, Laguna Research and Access China.

These reports cover many diverse industries including:

• Location Based Services (LBS)
• China's Shipbuilding Industry
• China's Medical Devices Market
• China's Backlight Unit (BLU)
• Chinese Life Insurance Industry
• Chinese Cosmetics Industry
• China Energy Market
• China Rim Briefs
• Online Gaming Market
• China Pharm Industry
• China Automobile Industry

You can find extensive detail about all of these reports and more on the RC China Economy page at: http://www.researchconnect.com/reports_featured/China_Economy.asp