You have several options from the Mergent Online homepage. The primary two options are:

• Enter keywords into the search box to the left to search for a specific company.
• Use the box to the right to search by industry, index, exchange, or country. The industry search is likely the most useful feature here.

Additionally, you can:

• Use the Country Profile dropdown menu to quickly access a country profile (PDF format).
• Use the Corporate Calendar to see what's going on that day with various company's reporting mechanisms (conference call, earnings calls, etc.).
• Use the tabs at the top to navigate to the Advanced Search, Executive Search, Government Filings, and other modules. The Advanced Search is where to go if you want to make a list of companies in a specific market and location instead of searching for a specific company.

Use the first search option available, the one that starts with "USA Company Database (Active)" as an option, to search for specific companies. The default options look through company databases of both U.S. and international public companies, both active and inactive. You can also add a private company database from D&B, but this is only necessary if the company you are looking up is a private company or you're not sure if it is. Remember, private companies will always have less information available on them when compared to public companies. 

Once you start typing, a list of suggestions will appear. You can keep typing or click on a suggestion to view that company's profile.