Calling all search engines

Having time is the name of the game on the World-Wide Web. That’s why we think a meta-search agent should be a part of everybody’s Internet toolbox. Unfortunately, none of the current crop is perfect, though each has strengths.

Iconovex Corp.’s Echo-Search is fast, but that’s because it peruses only seven search engines. ForeFront Group, Inc.’s WebSeeker allows you to refine searches iteratively, but it lacks relevancy rankings for its results and has an annoying habit of launching a new instance of the browser every time you want to view a site. Symantec Corp.’s Internet FastFind gives you a bundle of applications in addition to its WebFind program, making it a terrific value. But it also tended to launch multiple browser windows. Quarterdeck Corp. WebCompass has the best search interface and is the only program that lets you add and categorize search engines. However, it lacks an easy way to export its links to a bookmark file. Still, it took the Blue Ribbon in this test.

Each meta-search engine works in tandem with any browser you choose. It concurrently searches multiple Internet search engines, such as AltaVista, Lycos and Infoseek, and returns an index of hits from its combined efforts. We found each works best when given only a single word on which to search. You can schedule WebCompass and WebSeeker to perform or update their searches periodically.

The four programs are almost equivalent when it comes to specifying a search, though each offers some unique features. WebCompass alone includes a Topic Wizard to help you easily construct queries. WebSeeker lets you specify and or operations for the keywords you specify and will index the sites it retrieves according to keywords it discovers unless you disable the feature to get better performance. That is, it determines what words appear most frequently in the search results and uses them to compile an index of retrieved links. EchoSearch lets you choose whether to search its seven known search engines or a bookmarks file of predefined links, which makes it easy to do iterative searches. All of the programs let you limit the number of hits you want to see.

Each product displays its progress while searching. EchoSearch is the only one that doesn’t allow you to minimize its progress window ÿ a symptom of the product’s nonstandard interface, which fails in annoying ways to conform to suggested Windows 95 application style.

Most of the products create a temporary HTML file with the results of your search, but WebCompass results are stored in a database file. You can then further refine your search criteria and, for faster results, limit subsequent searches to links included in that file.

Most of the products also require you to display your results in your browser. Web-Compass gives results in a three-paned summary screen that shows a relevancy rating for every document, a summary of each document and keywords the program deduces. If you double-click on a document, WebCompass invokes your Web browser and takes you to the page. You can annotate documents in the database with your own notes, a feature the other programs don’t offer.

The only significant drawback to Web-Compass is the difficulty it has exporting results to an HTML file. You have to view the results file, which includes a summary of each site, in a browser. Then you must use the browser’s Save command to make an HTML file, which also includes the descriptive summaries. If you want to share the links you find as a bookmark file with another user, you have to manually edit out the descriptions.

Some of the programs have additional features that add to their appeal. Web-Compass lets you categorize groups of Web sites, such as General, Investment, Netnews and any you care to add. Unfortunately, you can’t choose to search all categories, unless you create a category that includes all the engines. We also wished Quarterdeck would add the ability to clone a site for inclusion in other categories.

Internet FastFind comes bundled with the following seven utilities in addition to WebFind, its search component:

NetFileFind looks for specific files on the Internet.

EasyFTP adds numerous File Transfer Protocol sites to your Windows Explorer.

PatchConnect, like CyberMedia’s Oil Change, automatically finds updated versions of your system’s software.

LiveUpdate automatically updates Internet FastFind. (ForeFront has a similar utility that runs every time you launch WebSeeker.)

EasyZip adds compression capabilities to Explorer’s right-click menus.

WebLaunch puts an icon in your task bar tray that lets you quickly browse any page in your bookmarks file. Notify lets you monitor Web sites, FTP directories, files or folders for changes.

All of these utilities are probably worth the price of the product alone, even without WebFind, which earns FastFind an honorable mention. The others have their strengths, as well, but WebCompass is clearly the best of the bunch. We hope the next version adds some of the features its competitors offer, such as EchoSearch’s ability to iteratively search the results of a previous search and easy HTML exporting, which all the others support. We then could recommend WebCompass wholeheartedly.