what would be a good on-line information business in todays
marketplace. please provide some stats to show the viability and
profitability of the choice

I started an online information business, raised venture capital and
sold the company.  Its not easy to find a niche for an information
business and particularly hard to defend one once you find it.

What is your area of interest?  Maybe I can help.

my area of interest is new technology, health, real estate, and finance

It would appear from your question you are seeking a pure-play
'Internet' business, which is relatively rare. The most successful,
for instance, is eBay as it neither has inventory (of its own) nor
typically conducted business 'off-line' ... at least until they bought
Butterfields, etc.

Most Internet businesses use the Internet primarily for marketing. An
example in real-estate would be the virtual tour business as Virtual
Tours typically are distributed mainly on the Net. Still, this
particular real-estate business involves significant real-world effort
(going to homes and photographing them.)

The online mortgage business is also both on-line and off-line as I
don't think anyone is doing the closings online ... at least yet.

Real Estate is also, by definition, a dirt-brick-and-mortar business
in a specific locality. While the Net may have in some markets,
penetration of 70-80 percent of households, in most cases even the
most successful locally targeted sites reach only a portion of the
homes or eyes in any geographic market.

Hence, I would ask do you envision your Internet venture a pure-play
effort or one that is both on and off-line?

on line primarly, i enjoy learning very much so something to do with
research would be great