About us
DataBuss is an editorial project that tests and rates online databases of companies, rather than selling access to them. This page explains how it started and what the work looks like today.
How it started
DataBuss began in 2020 as a small notebook of links, put together while comparing directories for an entirely different research task. There was no plan behind it at first — just a running list of company databases worth remembering, kept because switching between a dozen browser tabs had become unworkable.
Within a few months, the notes stopped being notes. Short write-ups replaced bullet points, and the write-ups, in turn, grew into something closer to a catalogue. Nobody set out to build a rating site; it assembled itself out of the habit of writing down what had just been tested.
What the project does now
The notebook has turned into an archive of more than 500 articles, covering company databases across a wide range of industries and regions. Ninety of those are in-depth reviews that go beyond a homepage summary — each one tests the search functions, filters, and data accuracy of the database in question before any score is given.
The checklist behind those reviews stays fixed from one write-up to the next, so two databases covering completely different markets can still be compared on the same terms. Older reviews aren't left to go stale, either: whenever a database changes its pricing or redesigns its interface, the relevant article gets revisited rather than quietly forgotten.
Where the work happens
DataBuss operates online only, with no office and no single home city attached to it. The geography of the work has never mattered much, since testing a database's search filters and checking its data against real queries doesn't require being anywhere in particular.
That distance is also reflected in how the project can be reached. There's no phone line and no physical address to write to — anyone wanting to get in touch does so by email, and the editors read what comes in on Mondays and Wednesdays.