In a move intended to make SEC filings more user-friendly for investors, the Securities and Exchange Commission introduced the "successor to the agency's 1980s-era EDGAR database, which will give investors far faster and easier access to key financial information about public companies and mutual funds."

The IDEA behind the Interactive Data Electronic Applications system is to make it so that investors can compare data between multiple SEC filings more easily, without having to open up new tabs.

While it's certainly a step in the right direction for investor-friendliness, it's actually bad news for sophisticated investors: the people who find undervalued stocks by seeking out mispricings caused by investors who don't analyze/understand the businesses they're looking at.

Look at what's happened in the foreclosure market: savvy investors used to be able to make million there but, as online databases have made searches of distressed properties possible in seconds, the deals aren't what they used to be.

As new rules and disclosures increase, so will market efficiency -- that's good for the market but bad for some of its participants.

Over the past 25 years, the average CEO's pay package has increased an inflation-adjusted 600% and the ratio of the pay of a top executive to the average worker has quadrupled. On Saturday, the New York Times published an excellent piece with eight steps to curbing executive overcompensation. Among them are hiring independent advisers (as opposed to the common practice of the CEO hiring a consultant to decide how much he or she should be paid ... hmm), avoiding contracts, improving the role of shareholders in determining executive pay, and getting money managers to vote.

Executive compensation is a factor that investors need to look at more closely. To learn about the compensation of the mangers of a stock you own, you can look at the company proxy statement, which can be found by searching for "DEF 14A" in the SEC's Edgar database. In general, look for insiders who own a large chunk of the company's stock. When executives collect high salaries, own little stock, and exercise options frequently, it is often indicative of the interests of management being poorly aligned with those of shareholders.

For the ultimate in corporate governance, take a look at Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A). CEO Warren Buffett collects a salary of $100,000 per year, with no stock options and no bonuses, and has nearly all of his personal wealth invested in his company. While this is an extreme example, any CEO who has staked his or her personal fortune on the success of the company has a powerful incentive to deliver strong results to shareholders.

This week, Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) launched another vertical search site -- this one devoted to patents. Yes, now you can easily look up information on the seven million patents in the U.S.

True, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has its own database. But it simply can't bring the kind of resources Google can.

Not surprisingly, the Google site is a bit fun. For example, there are five patents that pop-up on the front page (randomly). For example, one was for a "toilet seat deodorizer apparatus" (what will they think of next?)

When you search for a patent, you also have the ability to zoom in or out on the drawings. Other details include claims, citations, and references.

Depending on who you are, this new resource can either be a tremendous time saver or a tremendous time sink. Wasting time at work has never been more fun -- or informative.

Now if only they can do this with the SEC's EDGAR database. It would certainly make my life easier.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook. He also operates DealProfiles.com.