so do you see this as survey based? or focus group or what?

Web search mainly. If the person has local access to information even better (ex: someone from Canada wants to sell toilet paper in Brazil, they could ask for a market research from a local business student/graduate)

It's sorta like Inocentive ( http://www.innocentive.com ), but for business

like the idea of human search.

but i think the problem is quality management - how do you guarantee, that the results are not totally nonsense/ crap?

and in such a case would the company have to pay anyhow?

in case they wouldn?'t, would the researcher search then again (after being not paid for his last search?

Like in the extinct Google Answers "the one who asks" can request further research or explain a little bit better what where his expectations. If they are still not happy with the results they don't need to pay.

I think this has possibility as a specialized version of Amazon's Mechanical Turk. But I would like to see it set up well enough to ensure quality and payment.

For instance, possibly the researchers could be screened to some degree. And maybe a person could work with the client businesses to help form their work requests for best results. For instance, the big question could be broken down into small parts, which would each have objective answers, which could be attributed.

Great idea, if managed well enough. Many people are wasting their life surfing (like me!). Why not get some money for that?

*Maureen: totally agree with you. If you take the example of Innocentive, they do both of the things you mentioned.

*Sajjadi: it would be great to surf all day, go in the net, research a bit, and go back to the swell.. ;)

Much of the research done these days is performed overseas (cheaper labor costs, researchers with applicable degrees). Just like offshore development, virtual work like this requires a highly structured approach/process/requirements. It might be interesting to look at the cost models and processes related to offshore research and see what applies here.

At a minimum, information like this could be helpful in building input forms and payment agreements.

interesting.
it seems to be a mash of e-bay and google... but with human researches?
great! the results will be much more accurate. And You can gat information from places that you don't know how to get some sources...

hows it going with this?

...forge it more....am getting lost when you mentioned about Maurenn's Rival scout