(FORTUNE Small Business) – BOOKS

The New Competitor Intelligence: The Complete Resource for Finding, Analyzing, and Using Information About Your Competitors by Leonard Fuld

CI guru Fuld deconstructs everything from where to find information, to what to ask sources, and how to map out data. John Wiley & Sons, $34.95

Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors by Michael Porter

Considered the CI bible, Porter's book is admittedly dry (hey, he's a Harvard Business School prof), but Anne Henrich (see right), Senior VP at Washington Researchers, which holds CI seminars, recommends Chapter 3, "A Framework for Competitor Analysis," and Appendix B, "How to Conduct an Industry Analysis." The Free Press, $37.50

INTERNET

Individual.com

Sign up for free daily e-mails with headlines to wire stories, press releases, and other articles on selected topics. www.individual.com

Fuld & Company's Competitive Intelligence Guide

We wouldn't normally plug Fuld twice, but his comprehensive site is worth a visit. Especially noteworthy is the Internet Intelligence Index, with more than 600 links to industry groups and resources. www.fuld.com

EDGAR Online

Not a flashy site, but filled with more company annual reports (filed with the SEC) than you'll ever read. www.edgaronline.com

U.S. Census Bureau

Statistics, statistics, and also some more statistics. www.census.gov

TREASURE TROVES

Industry Reports

Type the names of the major players in a market in the same Internet search string to find industry reports, suggests Brian Reuter of Sopheon, a research firm. A search for several Canadian window manufacturers, for example, yielded an official government site with scads of vital industry statistics.

Trade Journals

News stories are full of chatty sources. Say a trade journal (like Design News) profiles an engineer who won a design award for a refrigerator that uses your competitor's switches. Chances are the engineer's happy to brag about his work. Call and get him to tell you what he likes about the switch.

Resumes

Adam Penenberg, co-author of Spooked: Espionage in Corporate America, recommends punching in the word "resume" and a company's name into an Internet search engine to locate phone numbers and addresses of (most likely) talkative and disgruntled employees. Be sure to try as many search engines as possible; each one will turn up surprisingly different results.

PROFESSIONAL HELP

Association of Independent Information Professionals AIIP's referral service hooks you up with competitive intelligence experts. www.aiip.org/access.html

Reported by Beth Kwon