I cannot imagine that those looking for industrial items/companies actually GO right to ThomasNet as opposed to- perhaps 'ending up there' via a Google Search. Thus- we bring up the case/scenarion of 'double-dipping'… where my Thomas money is competing against my Google Adwords money.

With fairly vast experience- only the TRUE old-schoolers go RIGHT to ThomasNet to search. And soon- 10 years about I'd say- those 'old-schoolers' and baby boomers are going to be retired. Not to mention how GOOGLE-IZED we have ALL become. The bottom line is- it seems that Thomas is beginning to be and will soon be out-of-date.

They are now a cookie-cutter-web-'development' company who simply CANNOT compete against the INTERNET. PERIOD. So, what am I to do? Ever since the massive set of 'GREEN BOOKS' arrived each year and the internet was considered a child's toy- Thomas was the creme de la creme- they had a lock on the 'yellow pages' of industry. No longer.

Another thing I don't like is that Thomas puts together fairly pedestrian websites- mostly at a high cost to guys who grew up hacking steel in half with their bare teeth. In otherwoods- your rep (which I am not in that case because I build sites) will tel and tell you and discount and discount until you fold- and agree to a $10-$20 K website that could be accomplished by a 7th grader- but only with graphics and layout that looks the skill-level of a kindygartna!

So is ThomasNet on its way down? It seems that for now- they have a good lock on adwords search results (and then, start bidding wars with their point system to see which client will reap the benefits of such good placement). Their lock on Adwords seems to be a direct result of all of the CONTENT THAT THOSE 12 ft. GREEN Encyclopedia books contain(ed) before this thing called… the INTERNET started to be able to find companies just as well- and in my experience BETTER than ThomasNet.

As well- there is not much editorial requisites for Thomas either- as far as being ranked high within their catalog with THE catalog (internet). Haven't they learned that quality results to not COME FROM 'the highest bidder wins?' You can't buy your way into Google that way… Even Yahoo (boo yahoo) changed their tune a bit…why- quality results.

So- am I completely off base, crazy or do I have valid points- if so- which. thanks all!