Hoover's Near Here is an iPhone application that enables you to quickly find companies near you or near where you are going. Change the search radius using the map to expand or reduce your search area. Viewing companies on the map or list view, you can filter by multiple industries, keywords, sales ranges and employee count ranges. Select a company record to get company details, access the web site, map out driving directions and place a call. Take notes on a company and integrate contacts on a company record with your address book. With access to millions of companies, you can quickly and easily find prospects while on the go. Hoover's Near Here Hoover's Near Here's database contains businesses from the United States and Canada.

Currently, the Hoover's Near Here application is only available on the App Store for the iPhone and iPod touch. It also is fully compatible with the iPad.

The application returns the companies in the area displayed by the map. The map works just like the one in the Maps application: Double-tap with a single finger to zoom in; single-tap with two fingers to zoom out; use the pinch/pull method to zoom "just enough;" or swipe the map in any direction to see what's there. Every time you change the map, Hoover's Near Here issues a new search and shows you the results.

The map initially displays the top 25 companies, based on annual sales in descending order, for a given search area. See the total number of companies that meet your search criteria in the given search area below the map in the right corner of the application. To view more companies, toggle to list view and scroll to the bottom of the list. 25 additional companies will be added at a time, up to 100 total. Toggling back to the map view will show the pins for the additional companies.

The application uses your current location as a starting point to search for companies. To change the search location, move the map or type a different address in the search field at the top of map or list view. If you're looking for a specific location you'll have the best chance of finding it by formatting your search like "Address City State" or "Address City Zip."

To return to your current location while viewing the map, tap the home button, located below the map in the left hand corner.

Position the map in the city in which the company is located. Clear all filters in the filter drawer. Enter the company's name as a Keyword filter, or type the name into the search field at the top of the screen. The more words within the name you enter, the better chance you'll have of finding the company.

Filters help you narrow down your search results to get the set of companies most applicable to you. Filters are available in map and list view. To access the filters, tap the yellow filter drawer in the right corner of the application, directly above the map in map view or directly above the list in list view. There are four available filters:

• Annual Sales
• Number of Employees
• Industries
• Company Keywords

Within each filter you can select multiple filter criteria. To select a filter criteria tap the name of the criteria once. To deselect, tap again. When a filter criteria is selected a green circle will appear to the left of the criteria.

Once you select criteria within a filter, press the green "Apply" button to apply those filters to your search.

The set of criteria displayed within a filter represents that filter's criteria available in your current search results set. For example, if you are not in a search area that contains companies in the pharmaceutical industry, the "pharmaceutical industry" would not appear. Each filter you set further narrows your search results.

Use the "All" tab in the segmented controller at the bottom of each screen to view all of the available criteria, regardless of your current search area. Use the "Chosen" tab in the segmented controller at the bottom of each screen to view the filters you've already selected.

Select the 'No Filters' item at the top of the list to deselect all items.

1. How do I apply filters to my search?
   Once you have selected your filter criteria tap the green "Done" button in the top right corner or the "Done" tab at the bottom of the filter drawer.
2. How do I clear filters?
   To clear all filters, tap the gray "Clear All" button in the filter drawer. Either select new filters or tap the green "Done" button in the top right corner or the "Done" tab at the bottom of the filter drawer to return to the map or list view.
3. How do the industry filters work?
   Type the name or partial name of the industry you are searching for in the search bar within the industry filter or scroll through the list.
4. How do I save filters?
   Hoover's Near Here enables you to save a set of filters. To do so, choose the set of filters you wish to save. Tap the "Save Set" button. Choose to leave the name as "My Saved Filters" or rename it. Then tap the green "Save" button to save the filter set or tap cancel to return to the filter drawer.
5. I have already saved a filter set. How do I apply that filter set to my search?
   To load a set of saved filters, tap the filter tab and select "Load Set." Tap the saved filter set you want to load, which will return you to the filter drawer. Tap "Done" to apply the filter set to your search.
   

If no results are returned, there are no companies located in your current search area that match your filter criteria. Adjust your filter criteria or expand your search area by zooming using the pinch/pull method to show a larger area on the map.

Company search results are available in both map and list view. Use the map view to expand or reduce your search area and to return to your current location. The list view enables you to sort the search results. You can view company profiles, bookmark locations, change your search address or filter from map or list view.

Bookmarking a location means that you are saving the current map, both the location and the size, or search area. To bookmark a location, tap the add icon in the bottom right corner of the application on the map or list view. Retain the street address (the address of the center of the map) as the bookmark or change the name by clearing the field and typing a new name. Tap the green "Save" button in the top right corner to save. To cancel, tap the "Cancel" button in the top left corner.

Companies can be bookmarked from each company profile page. To bookmark a company, tap the add icon in the bottom right corner of the application in profile view. Retain the name of the company as the bookmark or change the name by clearing the field and typing a new name. Tap the green "Save" button in the top right corner to save the bookmark. To cancel, tap the "Cancel" button in the top left corner.

From a company profile page, tap the "note" icon at the bottom of the application, tap the notebook paper to enter text. Tap the "done" icon to dismiss the keyboard. Either tap the "trash can" icon to delete the note, or tap the company name to save the note and return to the company profile. You can create one note per company profile. Notes are accessible from map or profile view.

A company for which you have created a note.

Company and location bookmarks can be accessed from map or list view. Tap the bookmark icon in the top right corner of the application from map or list view. Toggle between all bookmarks, location bookmarks and company bookmarks using the segmented controller at the bottom of the bookmarks screen. To select a bookmark, tap the bookmark. To delete a bookmark, tap the "Edit" button in the top right corner and select the bookmark you want to delete. Tap the "Delete" button in the top right corner.

From list view, you can sort companies in the search result set by tapping the "Sort" button in the lower left corner. Sort by Annual Sales, Number of Employees or Company Name in ascending or descending order. Tap the green "Sort Results" button to apply the sort and return to list view.

Scroll through the list of companies in profile view by tapping the up/down arrows in the top right corner. These buttons change to the previous or next company in the list, as shown in the list view.

Company profiles can be accessed from map view by tapping a red pin, then tapping the button that appears next to the company's name, or from list view by tapping the company name. Each profile includes the following (when available):

• Company Name
• Doing Business As Name(s)
• Physical Address
• Primary Phone Number
• Web site
• Primary Industry
• Annual Sales
• Number of Employees at that location
• My Contacts at that location
• Key people at that location and their titles

From a company's profile view you can add contacts from your Address Book to a company record. Tap "Add From Address Book" and select the contact you wish to add. Or add records from a company profile to your Address Book by tapping to the blue "add" icon next to the contact name. Contacts will automatically be placed into a group called "Hoovers" within your Address Book. Contacts can only be added one at a time.

From a company profile page, use the normal "swipe to delete" gesture on the contact you want to delete. Note that the record in the Address Book is not actually deleted, just the reference to it within Hoover's Near Here.

Tap the website within a company profile to launch the home page for a company website. The browser launches within the application, allowing you to easily return to the company profile by tapping the company name in the top left corner of the application. The browser functions like the Safari application, in that you can zoom the pages to more easily see the content, and tap links to view different pages.

Tap the phone number on a company profile page to call the company. Tap call. This functionality is only available on devices capable of making a phone call.

Prior to driving or planning a trip to a company, please call ahead. Tap the address from within a company profile to view the company on a map. The map that appears automatically zooms to include both the company's location and your current location. To get driving directions from your current location tap the "Get Directions" button below the map. To get step-by-step directions, tap the "Show Step-by-Step" button below the map.

Prior to driving or planning a trip to a company, please call ahead. Tap the address from within a company profile to view the company on a map. To get directions from a location different than your current location, tap the search bar above the map and type in the "from" address from which you would like directions to the company. A purple pin will drop for that location, and the map will zoom to include both the purple pin and the company's pin. Tap the "Get Directions" button below the map. To get step-by-step directions, tap the "Show Step-by-Step" button below the map.

Company profiles can be e-mailed from within the application. From profile view, tap the e-mail icon at the bottom of the screen. If you have added contacts or created a note for this company, you can choose whether or not to include them in the e-mail. Fill in the "To" field using your address book or by typing in an e-mail address.

Within a company profile tap the "Search for Local Competitors" button to find companies in the same industry that are physically close to the company. This search clears your most recent filter set selections.

Some of Near Here's basic functionality can be changed by altering its preference values within the Settings application. To change those preferences, launch Settings and select "Hoover's Near Here" from the list.

• What is "Use Metric"? If OFF then American English units of measurement are used (feet, miles, etc.). If ON then metric units of measurement (meters, kilometers, etc.) are used.
• What is "Accuracy"? This setting governs a displayed value on the map view, just below the lower-left corner of the map. Selecting "GPS Accuracy" will cause Hoover's Near Here to provide up-to-date information on how accurately the internal location circuitry has determined your current location. Selecting "Search Radius" will show you how large the current search area is, as measured from the center of the map.
• What is "Competitor Distance"? The company profile screen contains a button allowing you to find "local competitors" to that company. This setting governs the distance used for that search. The available options are 5, 10, 25, 50 and 100. The distance is associated with the "Use Metric" setting, in that "5" could mean either "5 miles" or "5 kilometers."
• What is "Keep Bookmarks Sorted"? If OFF then new bookmarks and saved filter sets will appear at the bottom of their respective lists. If ON then Hoover's Near Here will sort the lists by the names you have chosen for each item. Note that if this setting is ON then you cannot manually rearrange the items in the list.

Hoover's Near Here is available at the App Store. You can access it by clicking on the app store button that you find across this site.

You may access Hoover's Near Here's comprehensive database wherever you are in the United States and Canada.