After months of planning, arguing, and tweaking, we're finally on the Net! It took longer than any of us planned, I think, but the QMRR Web site is now ready for your perusal at http://www.quirks.com.
Kudos to all who worked on developing the site, especially QMRR’s Webmeister Dan Quirk, who oversaw the project from start to finish. From creating the early incarnations of the Web pages to finding a service provider and fine-tuning the search engine, Dan experienced the unique joys of the design-by-committee approach so beloved by his co-workers.
Free searches
The heart of the Web site is a searchable database that lets users locate a research provider in seconds using a variety of criteria - free of charge. There’s no software to buy, no subscription fees to pay.
In essence, we took the text of the Researcher SourceBook, our annual rectory of research firms, and put it on the Web. So, for example, if you’re looking for a company in Chicago that does advertising research, simply select those criteria and let the search engine do the rest.
The Web site currently contains information from the 1995-96 SourceBook. We plan to replace it with the ’96-’97 edition this fall. As with our printed directories, our goal is to make the on-line edition of the SourceBook as complete as possible. We give free basic listings to every research company we can find, so your choices aren’t limited to firms that have paid fees to be listed.
Visit our site and you can also find out how to submit an article, send us some Email, or check out our editorial calendar. In the future we plan to add an employment listing, a research bulletin board and other features. We’dl ove to hear your suggestions.
Your source
Why did we create the Web site? It’s part of our commitment to be your source for marketing research information. We don’t envision the electronic edition replacing the printed magazine; rather, we view the two entities as complementary.
I may be in the minority but I just don’t see the computer revolution rendering print publications obsolete. In the first place, there’s still something special about holding a magazine or newspaper in your hand, carrying it with you to that comfy chair or other favorite sitting place. True, with the right modem a laptop lets you read an on-line edition of your favorite rag just about anywhere but it’s pretty tough to fold one or put it in your back pocket.
Plus, you’ll never go broke trying to figure out the point of that essay in Harper’s because “traditional” newspapers and magazines don’t charge you for the time you spend with them, as many online information providers do.
And while it’s fun to pull up your local daily on the computer it just isn’t the same as spreading it out on the kitchen table while you’re eating breakfast. To paraphrase Robert Duvall’s character in “Apocalypse Now,” I love the smell of newsprint in the morning. Cyberspace may have a lot of things going for it but it doesn’t have a scent—though I’m sure someone’s working on that.
Click and wait
Despite all the hoopla about the Internet, I really haven’t spent much time on it. My home computer is an aging Mac, woefully underequipped for the rigors of online adventuring. Plus I’m an America Online subscriber - another strike against me. So whenever I get on the Net it’s click and wait…and wait. Accessing the Net is easier here at work, where our various Macs and PCs are all fairly powerful. (Of course, I limit my Web crawling to strictly work-related information gathering.)
As far as I’m concerned, the real value of all this online business is that it allows anyone with a computer and a modem to search through vast amounts of information. It also lets people in distant locations communicate easily and cheaply.
For example, a few months back I was hungry for information about one of my favorite bands, The Blue Nile, a reclusive bunch of Scots who tend to take the better party of a decade to put out each new record. A little detective work on the Web (while at home, mind you) uncovered a site devoted to the band, where I learned that a new record was imminent. I also subscribed to an e-mail list through which fanatics like me can exchange news about the band and trace near-confessional anecdotes about why their music means so much to us. I may never meet Phil from Australia, a fellow Blue Nile acolyte, but I can share a bond with him, thanks to my computer. That’s pretty cool.
In our near-decade of publishing QMRR, we’ve tried to foster a bond with you, our readers, by giving you helpful information in a manner that meets your needs. The Web site is an extension of that aim. Please let us know how we can make it better for you.