It licenses its technology to businesses such as Compaq Computer, which uses it for online help. Business customers receive daily reports, reporting which questions customers are asking. Northern Light is the most comprehensive of the three services. The company faces competition from document retrieval services such as Lexis-Nexis as well as portals. Northern Light has signed up 5,500 sources of information, including newswires, as part of its special collection and also crawls the Web.
Searches retrieve information from both categories.
The private company gets about 20 percent of its revenue from advertising, according to Susan Stearns, Northern Light's director of enterprise marketing. Businesses get a customized interface as well as tracking and billing capabilities for special collection fees. A survivor's guide. Custom News ZDNet News brings you a summary of top headlines each business day.