SKILL / Business & Risk
Plans: Pro & AgencyCompany Directory Research
Collect public company listings, preserve their source context and distinguish duplicate entries from separate businesses.
Read the step-by-step user guideCompany Directory Research answers a practical opening question in business research: which public directory listings describe this company, and which of them refer to the same business? An investigator supplies a company name, a sector or a location, and Nexus collects the listings that public directories publish, keeps the visible listing fields intact and records the page each entry was taken from. The result is a sourced picture of a company’s public footprint before official registries and filings are examined.
What you get
A deduplicated set of public company listings, each attributed to the directory page it came from.
Using Company Directory Research in an investigation
The investigator receives a deduplicated set of listing records. Entries that describe the same business are grouped together, while entries that share a name but differ in address, registration details or trading name are kept apart and flagged as separate candidates. Every record carries its source context, so a reviewer can open the original listing and confirm what it says. Coverage notes state where a directory showed only limited fields, so gaps are visible rather than silently filled.
Within a case, listings can be added to the relationship graph as organization nodes, referenced in investigation notes and cited in a brief. Company Directory Research pairs naturally with UK Company Registry or US Public Filings, which test what a listing claims against official records, and with Business and Place Intelligence, which examines the advertised locations and contact details behind a listing. The listings also give Public Lead Research a sourced starting point.
Example objectives
Run the Skill directly, or describe the objective in your own words — these are the kinds of questions it is built to answer.
Ask Nexus
“Which public directory listings exist for a logistics company trading under this name in Rotterdam, and which of them are duplicates?”
Ask Nexus
“Collect the public listings for this consultancy and show me where the addresses and phone numbers disagree.”
Ask Nexus
“How many separate businesses share this trading name in public directories, and what distinguishes them?”
How Company Directory Research fits the investigation
A Skill is one move inside a case. The findings stay in the case file, where the evidence behind them can be checked, graphed and reported.
- 01
Choose or describe
Pick the Skill from the Skill Library, or describe the objective in your own words and let Nexus work out which Skills fit the question.
- 02
Review the evidence
Open the evidence record behind any finding and read the original public source before you rely on what it says.
- 03
Add to the case graph
Promote the people, organizations and identifiers you accept into the case relationship graph, straight from their evidence records.
- 04
Brief and report
Turn the case into a BLUF situation brief and, on Pro and Agency, into a structured PDF report with chain of custody.
Evidence before conclusions
What Company Directory Research cannot establish
Nexus keeps supported findings, possible matches, contradictions and information gaps apart instead of blending them into one narrative. These are the boundaries Company Directory Research states up front.
- Directory coverage and the fields each directory shows vary, so the listings Nexus collects are a sample of what is public, not a complete register of businesses.
- A listing is a public description of a business. It does not establish current legal status, ownership or whether the business is still trading.
- An empty or thin result does not mean the business has no public presence; it may be listed under a different name or not listed at all.
Best for
Teams that reach for Company Directory Research most often.
Related OSINT concepts
The vocabulary this Skill works in, defined in the glossary.
Related Skills
Skills investigators commonly run next, in the same case.
Frequently asked questions
What does Company Directory Research deliver?
Company Directory Research delivers a deduplicated set of public company listings for a name, sector or location. Each listing keeps its visible fields, such as address, phone number, category and description, and is attributed to the directory page it came from so the investigator can open the original. Nexus groups entries that describe the same business, flags entries that only look similar and notes where a directory offered limited detail.
How does Company Directory Research handle duplicate listings?
Company Directory Research compares listings on the details they publish, such as registered address, registration number, phone number and trading name. Entries that agree on those details are grouped as one business; entries that share a name but differ on them are kept apart as separate candidates. Nexus shows the reason for each grouping, and the investigator can override it, because a shared name alone is not proof that two listings describe the same company.
Does a directory listing prove that a company exists or is active?
A directory listing does not prove that a company exists or is active; it shows that someone published a description of a business, which may be outdated, promotional or created by a third party. Company Directory Research presents each listing with its source and date so it can be tested against official records with UK Company Registry or US Public Filings. Nexus treats a listing as a lead to verify, and an absent listing as a gap rather than evidence that the business does not exist.
Which Nexus plan includes Company Directory Research?
Company Directory Research is included in the Skill Library on the Pro and Agency plans. Pro unlocks 43 of the 47 investigative Skills, including Company Directory Research and the other business, financial and risk Skills, and Agency includes all 47.