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Harris Interactive



 
 
Harris Interactive is an American
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 market research
Market research

Market research often refers to either primary or secondary. In secondary research, the company uses information compiled from various sources which appears applicable to a new or existing product....
 company that specializes in public opinion
Public opinion

Public opinion is the aggregate of individual attitudes or beliefs held by the adult population. The principle approaches to the study of public opinion may be divided into 4 categories:...
 research using both telephone and online surveys on online panels. The company is the product of a 1996 merger between the Gordon S. Black Company and Louis Harris & Associates.

Harris Interactive has produced the Harris Poll surveys of public opinion since 1963, and is a member of the National Council of Public Polls (NCPP), the Council of American Survey Research Organizations
Council of American Survey Research Organizations

The Council of American Survey Research Organizations is the trade association of survey research organizations, representing over 250 companies and research operations in the United States and abroad....
 (CASRO), the Council for Marketing and Opinion Research (CMOR), and the European Society for Opinion & Marketing Research (ESOMAR).






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Harris Interactive is an American
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 market research
Market research

Market research often refers to either primary or secondary. In secondary research, the company uses information compiled from various sources which appears applicable to a new or existing product....
 company that specializes in public opinion
Public opinion

Public opinion is the aggregate of individual attitudes or beliefs held by the adult population. The principle approaches to the study of public opinion may be divided into 4 categories:...
 research using both telephone and online surveys on online panels. The company is the product of a 1996 merger between the Gordon S. Black Company and Louis Harris & Associates.

Harris Interactive has produced the Harris Poll surveys of public opinion since 1963, and is a member of the National Council of Public Polls (NCPP), the Council of American Survey Research Organizations
Council of American Survey Research Organizations

The Council of American Survey Research Organizations is the trade association of survey research organizations, representing over 250 companies and research operations in the United States and abroad....
 (CASRO), the Council for Marketing and Opinion Research (CMOR), and the European Society for Opinion & Marketing Research (ESOMAR). It creates many polls specially for the Channel 4
Channel 4

Channel 4 is a UK Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom television broadcaster which began transmissions on 2 November 1982. Although commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the #Channel Four Television...
 tv show 8 out of 10 Cats
8 Out of 10 Cats

8 out of 10 Cats is a television comedy panel game made by Zeppotron for Channel 4. It was first broadcast on 3 June 2005. The show is based on statistics and opinion polls, and draws on polls produced by a variety of organisations and new polls commissioned for the programme, carried out by company Harris Interactive....
.

History


Harris Interactive was founded by Dr. Gordon S. Black in 1975, then a professor of political science at the University of Rochester in New York. The company was originally named the Gordon S. Black Corporation. In 1996 it acquired Louis Harris & Associates, founded in 1956, from the Gannett Corporation. In 1997 the merged company renamed itself Harris Black International Ltd..

Growth of Online Polling

In 1997 the Internet was relatively new to the non-technical public. Harris Black International Ltd began exploring its use in the fall of that year. In December 1999 it went public and rebranded itself as Harris Interactive, a name that hinted at the increasing role of interactive surveys on the internet.

In 2000, Harris Interactive raised questions about the fairness of the mail abuse system after it was blacklisted by Mail Abuse Prevention System
Mail Abuse Prevention System

The 'Mail Abuse Prevention System' is an organisation that provides anti-spam support by maintaining a DNSBL. They provide five black lists, categorising why an address or an IP block is listed:...
 (MAPS). On July 31, 2000 it filed a law suit against AOL
AOL

AOL LLC is an United States global Internet services and media company operated by Time Warner and was headquartered in Loudoun County, Virginia until late April 2008 when it was moved to new offices at 770 Broadway in New York City....
, HotMail
Hotmail

Windows Live Hotmail, formerly known as MSN Hotmail and commonly referred to simply as Hotmail, is a free webmail service operated by Microsoft as part of its Windows Live group....
, MSN
MSN

MSN is a collection of Internet services provided by Microsoft. The Microsoft Network debuted as an online service and Internet service provider on August 24, 1995, to coincide with the release of the Windows 95 operating system....
, Qwest
Qwest

Qwest Communications is a large telecommunications carrier. Qwest provides local service in 14 western United States states: Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming....
, and several other ISPs for blocking its poll participants from participating in the survey.. The suit was dropped later in September after private negotiations between the parties.

Acquisitions Phase

Between 2001 and 2007, Harris Interactive grew by making a series of strategic acquisitions, among them:
  • the custom research division of Yankelovich Partners Inc, a prominent market research firm in the last half of the 20th century, acquired in February, 2001.
  • Wirthlin Worldwide
    Wirthlin Worldwide

    Wirthlin Worldwide was a political and business consulting firm founded by Dick Wirthlin in 1969. It ceased to operate as a separate company on September 8, 2004 when it was sold to Harris Interactive in a deal valued at $42 million dollars....
    , well known for its political campaign surveys and award winning market research, acquired in September, 2004.
  • MediaTransfer AG Netresearch & Consulting, a private European online research firm based in Hamburg, Germany which provides access into the $2.2 billion German market research market - the fourth largest in the world., acquired April, 2007.
  • Decima Research
    Decima Research

    Decima Research is a public opinion and market research company in Canada, founded in 1979 by Progressive Conservative Party of Canada strategist Allan Gregg....
    , a full-service Canadian research firm; the combination creates one of the largest and the strongest research companies in Canada, acquired in August, 2007.
  • MarketShare, a private Asian research firm with co-located headquarters in Hong Kong and Singapore, providing access to the rapidly growing US $3.3 billion Asia Pacific market, acquired in August, 2007.


The Harris Poll

The Harris Poll was created in 1963 by Louis Harris & Associates. When the company merged with Harris Interactive in 1996, the poll became the property of Harris Interactive. Company Members claim that Harris Poll has over 6 million panel-members world-wide.

In 1997 Harris Interactive began developing an on-line version of the poll. It has also developed several internet based specialist polls, among them:

  • Harris Interactive College Football Poll
    Harris Interactive College Football Poll

    The Harris Interactive College Football Poll is a weekly ranking of the top 25 NCAA Division I#Football Bowl Subdivision college football teams....


Competitors

Harris Interactives has competitors in many sectors of the market research industry. Within the interactive survey market its competitors are :

  • Synovate
    Synovate

    Synovate is a leading market research firm owned by the Aegis Group. It was formed from the acquisition of a number of smaller market research firms....


Up to date information about competitors may be obtained at these sites:
  • - provides key financial figures relative to competitors and industry as a whole. As of 2003-03-27, the yahoo listing only considers the online survey industry.