Are their services or folks that do this type of
one-off-Google-Answers-type research projects for comparable pricing
that is not public?

Here are some online research/answer sites that offer your queries to
be kept private, rather than posted in a public forum.

http://www.pro-researcher.co.uk/services_intro.html
Offers internet research services, does not give price, must contact
them via e-mail.

http://www.allexperts.com/
Free Q&A service on the Internet, Choose from experts in a wide array
of "categories" Have the option of making your question "private"


Both
http://yahoo.liveadvice.com/
and http://keen.com
offer answers to your questions via the telephone. Choose an expert
from their online category selection.

http://www.kasamba.com/
Offers users the choice of e-mailing their question to one of their
"experts"  or posting a question to their public board. When choosing
to e-mail a expert, you get to pick from a list of people based on
their area of expertise, and their asking price, . When posting the
question to the public board, experts will contact the asker with
their proposal. The information you seek is not publicly displayed
unless posted to the public board.

If you would like to specify any particular areas of interest that you
are needing research for, I might be able to provide you with more
links.
The sites I listed deal with a broad spectrum variety of areas,
however I found quite a few sites  that were geared towards specific
areas of interest, but did not feel
it was appropriate to post them all without knowing if they would be
of any use to you.

Good luck with your private research search!
chellphill-ga

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Request for Answer Clarification by sailguy-ga on 01 Apr 2003 19:35 PST

Thanks for what you've done. If, however, you can be more specific
that'll be great. My queries tend to be fairly broad (I have a few out
now) but business and marketing seem to dominate.

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Clarification of Answer by chellphill-ga on 01 Apr 2003 22:44 PST

Here are some more links that I picked out for you. These tend to be a
bit more "Business" related than the first set of
links. The previous links, although not business or marketing
specific, should have business, commerce, or marketing
related sub categories in which to choose from as well. 

GetExactly.com (http://www.getexactly.com)
Offers "Human Driven Internet Research"
The subject matter which you can request information on ranges from
"Business Marketing" and "Business Intelligence" to Personal
Entertainment and
Personal Investigation.
Their prices range from a Level 1 (1 hr of work, format output in the
form of a txt. file) for 14.95, all the way up to a level 7 (20 hrs of
research) for 179.95 Other output format options are PDF, MS excel,
and MS Word 97.

http://www.tracerlock.com/
For a monthly fee, tracerlock will notify you via e-mail when new
articles are published that contain your search terms.
(not necessarily a human doing the research for you, but might be
handy none the less.)

http://www.dataseekers.co.uk/
Is a online company based in the UK. Although prices are listed in UK
Pounds, the site doesn't claim to be for residents of the UK only.
What prompted me to post this link was the companies statement on
their "About Us" page
"We are a small band of dedicated personnel.
We exist to save you time, money and effort.
You will only receive information specific to your enquiry.
Our aims are to raise awareness of the amount of information available
on the Internet and to generate repeat enquiries
by keeping our visitors happy.
All information received is treated confidentially."
The offer the guaranty "No find - No fee"

http://www.yourjewishfairygodmother.com/
 This site's only apparent researcher (who puts a fun twist into paid
research!) States on her "who she is" page
(http://www.yourjewishfairygodmother.com/who.html)
"Your Jewish Fairy GodmotherTM has black belts in schmoozing,
manipulation, and chutzpah as well as academic degrees in
international
relations, history, and statistics from great universities like the
University of Pennsylvania, UCLA, and Cal State."
This page goes on to list some of her qualifications/experience as, 
"decades of real-world experience as a college instructor, marketer,
personnel manager, consultant, administrator, and gatekeeper to a busy
CEO."
She offers such services as; motivation, support, problem solving, and
(in regards to your query about business and marketing), she also
offers what she terms as "Inspiration", which gives examples like;
brainstorming, marketing ideas, research, information, creative
consulting,
and "making the right connections".
Prices depend on what service you require, and how much time she puts
into it. She does put a disclaimer on her site that states, " All
services are
 private and confidential"

http://www.cyberprofessors.com/
Offers their research services, with emphasis in the areas of Math,
Physics, Computer Science, and Statistics.
They do not list a price guide, however they claim that their services
are quite reasonable. In order to find out
the price of your query, you simply register, and then submit your
information request and they will quote you a price.

Thanks, and have fun with your research!

Just what I wanted/needed.