Each month, 1.17 billion unique users execute over 100 billion . 60 trillion web pages are .

You likely depend heavily on search to collect competitor intel.聽There鈥檚 a good chance that whatever you鈥檙e looking for is there somewhere. But. It鈥檚 time consuming to run searches and then wade through the public-facing content that鈥檚 SEO鈥檇 to show only the brightest and shiniest of news about your competitor.聽

Search lands you exactly where they want you to. Maybe you get some news links to a snarky tech blog review or a CEO profile, but that鈥檚 not going to help you build a killer sales battlecard or give you deep insight into their long-game. So. Where do you get the juicy stuff? How do you use competitive search efficiently?

Simply typing a competitor鈥檚 name into the search bar will get you pages of content (lots of it paid for by said competitor) but nothing really undercover. You will聽search and dig through reams of results and get nowhere. Be more specific. Start with a wishlist: financials, investor deck, launch plan, product roadmap, pricing. Add those terms to your search, as in 鈥湴岛谕�� + 鈥渋nvestor deck鈥�.

Next, you can add some filters via Advanced Search. I鈥檝e had luck playing with file type. For example, you know that an investor presentation is likely to be a PowerPoint or Slides doc, so start there. You will get comfortable with how you impact the search results by pulling the levers.

Make a list of other stakeholders that might have or publish intel on your competitor: partners, clients, suppliers, analysts. Start with a straightforward search for 鈥湴岛谕�� + 鈥淎nother Company鈥� and then move on to more general searches for 鈥湴岛谕�� + 鈥渁nalyst鈥�, for example.

Get creative. Add some adjectives: private, confidential, secret, internal use. You never know what might pop up. Cautionary note:聽it鈥檚 one thing to find it, it鈥檚 another thing entirely to use or share it. It鈥檚 not likely you鈥檒l be , but you might want to check your聽corporate code of ethics before you mic drop anything on your CMOs desk.