By tracking what sites are where--and who goes there--Alexa gleans insight into mass consumer behavior.

FORBES: Window Shopping

Rolls-Royce already gleans 51% of its revenue from servicing its engine fleet: its Trent jet engines are continuously assessed from a slick operations room at Derby.

ECONOMIST: Manufacturing: A tale of two industries | The

And by profiting from data it gleans from how people use a network it operates, Google could build a business more cheaply than traditional carriers do today.

WSJ: Google to Fund, Develop Wireless Networks in Emerging Markets

From real estate agreements, legal documents, bills for unpaid taxes and Shakespeare's own last will and testament, Greenblatt gleans that the bard's income from penning plays was nothing much.

FORBES: A Winner's Tale

Ezra Gottheil, an analyst with Technology Business Research in the U.S., said in a November research note that Lenovo gleans 53% of its revenue from sales to large enterprises, more than rivals Dell, HP and Acer.

FORBES: Not East or West