Any FREE SITE on the NET for Registered Company Name Searching?

Hi,

  Go here and look at the top:

http://hydrogen.klink.net/domain.html

I am not sure if i made myself clear, but i am specifically looking for a search database that will check the existence of registered COMPANY NAMES NOT domain names!.
I checked the site as proposed by dankh and it was only a domain name searcher.
 
BTW Thanks dankh for the effort.

The best place I've ever found is on Compuserve.  It does cost but it is only $25 and the search is pretty darn complete.   The interface is crude and slow but the cost is not time-based

 If you have a good 'Business Library' in your town they might be a GREAT resource for online look-up using their own connection to the few databases of this stuff.

Even though this info is collected at Government expense the companies that FORMAT it are allowed to charge for access.

Ratboy,

    Are you interested in public or private companies?  If just public, you can access Edgar's database to find out if there is a company registered already with the name you are thinking of.  Public companies post their financial data on this site for investors and such.  

In Australia we have a site on behalf of the Securities Commission that takes company registration. In addition you can go to the commisions offices and do a search. In both instances it is free.

I realise you are probably not in Australia,  I assume you are in the US? Do you have a government department that handles company registrations?

I am in Canada, close guess though (U.S). Yes we do have a gov department for company registrations. Its just that they charge a fee.  That includes the U.S too. I was hoping there would be a site on the net that gave such info for free on at least all North America companies, if not the world.

BTW dankh because you said to check out Edgar Database i did and it kinda checks up the companies but not too many.  I am going to leave this message open for other comments...If i can't get any i will give you the 100 points.
Thanks BabyDoll and Dankh so far.

r u thinking of creating a company?

If the government charges for the information, then you are going to be hard pressed to find a company that is willing to put said information online without tring to get a return on their investment. If the government charges a fixed ammount for a search, imagine what they would charge for the entire database.
That would give you the ability to search for yourself and then seel searches to third parties.

Not bloody likely if you think about it.