Microsoft Bing will now offer search features specifically derived from recent Twitter and Facebook status updates. With Twitter and Facebook becoming commonly used by politicians and other public figures to communicate with the public, these new search features provide better tools for researching their past statements.

Government agencies commonly charge reasonable fees to reproduce public records as necessary to cover their copy costs and search time. But what happens when these costs are prohibitively expensive? Santa Clara County recently paid a $500,000 settlement for legal fees after fighting a First Amendment Coalition lawsuit which challenged the excessive prices the county charged for Geographic Information System (GIS) maps.

Restaurants' food safety inspection reports, required to be conducted at least once a year in most states, have always been available via a public records request to city or county health departments. However, they are becoming more readily available and searchable online.

The Sacramento Bee recently published a database of gifts given to California politicians by synthesizing information from publicly available records, including elected officials' financial disclosure filings and lobbyists' disclosure reports.

Using a variety of existing public records resources and online databases together with supplementary written FOIA requests, the New York Times created a national database of water pollution violations and associated penalties.

To meet demands for transparency, more government agencies are publishing their public records online. These records have always been available with a written FOIA request, yet their easier online accessibility sometimes meets with resistance from interested parties.

Credit reports are not public records, but employers wishing to vet job candidates for high profile positions may seek consent of a candidate to review their credit record. Provided the employer follows the guidelines set forth by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), they may use this information to look at the candidate's personal financial history as a reflection of money management skills.

Expert witnesses are respected members of their profession who are trusted to provide truthful accounts in court, however if their credentials are found to be inaccurate or misleading, their testimony may be deemed unreliable. One recent example underscores the importance of verifying expert witnesses' credentials for your own and opposing legal teams.

Before selling new communication devices, companies must seek certification from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The FCC is a government agency responsible for regulating communications in the United States, so these filings are made available as public records in a searchable database on the FCC website.

Statistics on any number of different topics applicable to your needs may already be collected by the government and accessible either online or through an open records request. The government is constantly creating new databases and registries, ranging from expected statistics (related to population or transportation, for example) to seemingly obscure information about vending machine injuries or the ages of Atlantic salmon.

Ron Lieber's recent "Your Money" column made a good point about the difference between a "credential" and a membership in a professional organization. Lieber's point concerned members of the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors but it could relate to any of the thousands of professional organizations that exist.

This week, the British Parliament published expense reports for its members online in response to an extensive court and legislative battle originating from a five-year-old Freedom of Information request. The records made available by Parliament are redacted versions of expense reports that had been leaked last month to the Daily Telegraph, resulting in the recent scandal that has shaken up British government.