Use for: Covers 13 technical areas of interest to US government agencies such as the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy. Topics include Advanced Materials, Modeling & Simulation, and Carbon Dioxide. Good level of detail for US R&D activities
Use for: Tables of contents of market research reports. With a subscription you can combine this with a news service
Thomas Net
http://www.thomasnet.com/
Use for: Tables of contents and summary descriptions of market research reports. The descriptions include a few quotable statistics for the industry or sector
Use for: Finding similar products and prices. Search by category; look for product specs and catalogs. Excellent for looking at a list of many companies in a sector and seeing which ones have online product catalogs. Site sign-up is required the first time you access the site
US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)
http://www.uspto.gov/patft/
Use for: Alternate solutions to the same problem. Use the advanced search to specify fields within the patent. (spec/”material handling” finds the term in the description/specification field)