Websites

On this page are some of the websites I used during my time on this project. These sites were invaluable to my research. This is not a comprehensive list.

Company Websites

You should be aware of the changes made to the company according to their original press releases. Some have an email subscription set up, for others, you might have to subscribe via RSS or monitor page for changes. Don't know how? Go here.

Name: Starbucks News Release
Access: http://news.starbucks.com/
Frequency: Weekly
Information: Collection of news regarding Starbucks from its official website; most credible source of news regarding company although any stated opinions are likely biased
Query: Google, [Starbucks news release]
Evaluation: 7/10; I know this is reliable information and thorough. However, it probably wouldn't publicize too much negative news so I cannot just trust the company.

Name: Dunkin Donuts Press Release
Access: https://www.dunkindonuts.com/aboutus/press/
Frequency: Weekly
Information: Collection of news regarding Starbucks from its official website; most credible source of news regarding company although any stated opinions are likely biased
Query: Google, [Dunkin Donuts news release]
Evaluation: 7/10; I know this is reliable information and thorough. However, it probably wouldn't publicize too much negative news so I cannot just trust the company.

Just like the above two, I also subscribed to the email alerts or news letters of other major coffee players like McCafe, Maxwell, etc.

News Sites for Coffee Industry Research

These are all great websites that you should follow RSS. I like the following news site because they help you narrow down the topic by setting up special pages for coffee or individual coffee companies! However, if you want more detailed information, you can use FeedRines, FeedYes, Feed43 and Yahoo Pipes.

Name: BusinessWeek > Starbucks
Access: http://bx.businessweek.com/starbucks/news/
Frequency: Daily
Information: BusinessWeek is a good source of news articles, especially given this handy Starbucks tag that allows it to only show Starbucks news. However, the tag feature does not exist for all topics. For instance, I could not find one for McCafe.I can read news from compiled sources like New York Times, BusinessWeek, Motley Fool just to name a few. In addition, it also shows me mentions in blogs.
Query: [Starbucks] Although in the overall BusinessWeek site, I have also searched for [Coffee Chains] [Coffee] [McDonald Coffee] [Peed] etc.
Evaluation: 9/10 Very informative website although I wish the tag feature extended to more companies and topics.

Name: New York Times > Coffee; New York Times > Starbucks Corporation
Access: http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/c/coffee/index.html
Frequency: Daily
Information: Has a very nice layout for the Coffee topic with pictures, topic blog, highlights from archives, articles about coffee, even multimedia sources.
Query: At NYT, I also searched for [Starbucks] and found their page for Starbucks Corporation which was very useful with their stock performance and peer performances and of course news, articles, and even the company's press release.
Evaluation: 10/10; I love the layout. It only includes NYT articles so it doesn't branch out as much as Businessweek above in terms of news, however, it has an abundance of blogs and other information. But its own information is great and for company pages, it easiest shows you how the company is doing and why.

Name: BNET > Industries > Food Industry
Access: http://industry.bnet.com/food
Frequency: Daily
Information: BNET is a deep web search engine that gathers a lot of wonderful articles that are more opinion based than just fact based. For instance, I can read articles from CNN, MSNBC, WSJ about McCafe, but BNET would give me analysis of McCafe vs Starbucks battle.
Query: My favorite ones are just ones about specific coffee companies. E.G. [Starbucks]. I can also just look at its tag. Here are some other companies I discuss in this wiki that I can read about on BNET

Evaluation: 10/10 This is a great source of commentary about news.

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Industry Background - Organization Websites

Many of these organizations do not have RSS feeds, I would suggest that you set up WatchThatPage for the links and resources page. Since they're updated less frequently, this will allow you to stay updated without having to visit it daily.

Name: Beverage Industry Today - Coffee Category
Access: http://beverages.einnews.com/category/coffee
Frequency: Daily when I was looking for background research
Information: The Coffee News Sections constantly updated news and information about Coffee. Beverage Industry Today is an EIN news service, established in 1995, it supplies business professionals and indiviuals with relevant and interesting news products.
Query: The site separates news by company for you so there's no need for queries. Example: Maxwell House Coffee News & Diedrich Coffee News
Evaluation: 9/10; It offered me some great resources from which to gather information about the industry

Name: Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) - Resources Page
Access: http://www.scaa.org/?page=resources
Frequency: Daily when I was looking for background research
Information: Good background information. Has news about coffee market, surveys,and explanation of the industry.
Query: At their library tool, you can search for more information about any coffee shop like [Starbucks], [McCafe], [Green Mountain] etc.
Evaluation: 5/10; This site is a bit too focused for the purposes of this project

Name: National Coffee Assocation
Access: http://www.ncausa.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=1
Frequency: Daily when I was looking for background research
Information: The index page has a great list of resources of information such as Coffee Magazines & Publications, links to Trade Assocations, and General Information about Coffee. You can also just learn more about coffee here, read about coffee consumption research, and read reports of what has affected the industry over time
Query: At their online search, you can search their site. I found the best queries to be information about the industry as a whole rather than company. For instance [Trends]
Evaluation: 8/10; Has great links and sources, even more capabilities show up if I'm a member

Personal Websites/Blogs

These blogs all have RSS feeds. Subscribe to them to get updated entries. Again, FeedRines, FeedYes, Feed43 and Yahoo Pipes might come in handy if you want to avoid blogs that deal with irrelevant topics (e.g. which coffee machine is the best)

Name: Cofei - From Crop to Cup
Access: http://www.cofei.com/
Frequency: Once a week
Information: A website dedicated to anything coffee related, from history to culture to news.
Query: There is no search enable on this website
Evaluation: 2/10 Stopped updating in May of 2007

Name: CoffeeGeek
Access: http://www.coffeegeek.com/resources
Frequency: Daily by RSS Feed
Information: Contains a variety of coffee information such as consumer guides, reviews of equipment etc. I was most interested in the news portion of the website.
Query: Could search for terms like [Starbucks] and get results separated as by category doc/products or consumer reviews.
Evaluation: 5/10; so so information with a lot of industry information that was too specific for my needs.

Just for Fun

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