It looks like Boise is again heading for the top five again in the annual Forbes magazine “Best Place for Business and Careers” list.

The list hasn’t been published yet, but a reporter from Forbes has been in Boise this week talking to some of the local tech companies.

He interviewed Shane Vaughan with Balihoo on Tuesday.

Vaughan, the Boise software company’s vice president of marketing, told me today that Boise is one of the companies the magazine decided to pull out in a separate profile to accompany the list.

Each year the magazine profiles a few of the cities that make the list.

Vaughan was told the profile would have a technology focus and that Boise will likely land in the top five.

This would be the fourth year in a row Boise has made the top 5. In 2005, it took the top spot, but dropped to No. 4 in 2006 and climbed to No. 3 in 2007.

The reporter told Vaughan he was interviewing big companies like Micron and HP, but also focusing on the growing smaller companies like Balihoo.

Balihoo, which developed a search engine to help media buyers quickly find sources to spend advertising dollars, is having a good year.

Last month, the company landed $4 million in additional funding and by all indications its search engine is catching on with customers.

It’s always nice to see Boise get some national recognition, but I’m often disappointed when publications fail to look at the challenges facing an area.

So I was happy to hear from Vaughan, that the reporter was also concerned about the state’s commitment to technology considering the lack of technology infrastructure and the disbanding of the Governor’s Science and Tech Council.

I'll be interested to read his take on that.

The issue should hit the stands in late March, Vaughan said.