Search Shortcuts
If you're looking for something very specific, using a specialized search engine is the best line of attack. SuperSeek, a metasearch site, puts at your fingertips 1,300 search indexes and databases broken down into more than 30 categories. Narrowing your focus will help you find what you're looking for in seconds flat.
Actioneer Smart Portal, a free download, offers another way to cut directly to what you're looking for—stock quotes, movie times, sports scores, and more. Click on the Actioneer icon in your system tray and type in a keyword or phrase—say, sq INTC. Seconds later, it will serve up Intel's current stock price. You can also quickly add calendar items in several popular contact managers, do Internet searches, and look up the definition of a word.
Popularity Contest
Google ranks pages based on popularity—that is, how many links a page has to other pages and vice versa. This lets Google deliver sites that are usually dead-on what you're looking for, with few irrelevant hits.
Another way to be sure the sites listed under your search results don't waste your time is to use Direct Hit. HotBot, Looksmart, Lycos, and MSN all use Direct Hit's technology to offer result rankings based on how many people have browsed those sites longer than a few seconds. For example, at HotBot click on the link that reads "Get the Top 10 sites for [your search words]."
Just Ask Got a burning question? Ask an expert. That's right—a person. Looksmart Live puts a staff of experienced human Web browsers at your service. Type your question in the box at www.looksmart.com/live and you should receive an answer via e-mail within 24 hours. We typed in What year was the best for California cabernets? and a Looksmart Live editor got back to us in less than two hours with our answer—1995—as well as links to more on the subject of California wines.
If you don't feel like waiting, ask your question at Ask Jeeves. If your answer is in the site's growing database, you could get exactly what you're looking for. If not, the results will at least be entertaining. We asked How tall is Michael Jordan? and Jeeves served up ways to prevent altitude sickness. If it can't find the exact answer to your query, AskJeeves hits the top search engines and displays your results in drop-down lists.
Heavy Artillery
If Web search sites just don't do it for you, or if you'd like to run automated searches in the wee hours of the morning, consider a search utility. Take a few minutes to download IntelliSeek BullsEye Pro 1.5. But be warned: If you're not prepared to pay the slightly pricey $149 after your 30-day trial runs out, you might suffer from withdrawal. With its 450 search engines and databases, a bad-link filter, and relevancy rankings, we were hooked on BullsEye Pro after only a few days. (You could also buy the standard version for $49.)
Another top search tool is Copernic 99 Plus, which costs $30 but also comes in a free downloadable version. Run searches on 130 search engines grouped in categories such as the Web, newsgroups, addresses, games, music, and many more.
If you need a way to file and organize the info you find on the Net, check out Webforia Organizer. This $80 utility captures and organizes Web content in both Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator while you browse. Grab entire pages or just a portion, including graphics and links, then organize them in folders you create. Adding custom keywords and notes to captured material makes it a breeze to retrieve and use the info later, while the preview pane lets you review content offline.
Trying to print Web pages in a usable format is anything but painless. Canon's $50 WebRecord Pro makes it fast and easy. You can download a free demo version of the plain-vanilla program, which is also bundled with Canon's BJC-5100 and BJC-6000 ink-jet printers. Quickly gather pages as you browse, then print a group as a single document complete with table of contents. Schedule updates and print runs, filter out content you don't want, or print one or two columns in a crisp, readable format.
Be Your Own PI
Dig up dirt on competing companies. KnowX.com (www.knowx.com) lets you search public records affordably, usually for about $1 per search plus 95 cents to $6.95 for one of the many available reports. Find missing links in your family tree with Ancestry.com, which also offers some free searches. Membership ($59.95 per year) lets you search all the site's databases.Your browser's default start page barely skims the surface of what's good on the Web. Skip to the meatiest information by streamlining your searches right from the beginning.
Rock On
We know you don't have hours to burn looking for audio and multimedia files on the Internet. So look to these sites first. For MP3 music and spoken-word content, check out RioPort.com. For video and other media files, turn to Scour.Net and Search By Media. For hard-core multimedia searches, download EastBay Technologies' MediaGrab 2.5. For $29, it lets you troll FTP and media sites to zero in on exactly what you're looking for.
Get a Buzz
New search engines appear every day. Old ones constantly undergo changes and revisions. ResearchBuzz keeps tabs on the ins and outs of search engines, both the major and the minor players. Plus it has search tips to make you an expert in no time.
A Sharper Image
Need a picture? Ditto.com can serve one up in seconds flat. Go with your own search terms or browse by category. The site filters out lots of the useless images you might normally hit using standard search engines. For even more powerful image searches, check out SkibbySoft's $20 Internet Graphics Finder, which quickly finds and displays graphics.
Get the FAQs
Usenet newsgroups are a great source of information on specific topics, but you're often stuck wading through hundreds of messages to find answers. Forget that. Most newsgroups have FAQs that answer the most common questions posted to the group. You'll find an archive of FAQs at www.faqs.org.
Name Your Price
Don't wander the Web searching for auction bargains. iTrack checks popular Web auctions and e-mails you updates when the items you want go on the block. Up to three daily searches are free, and you can pay $25 to $50 per year for more. A similar tool, Auction Watchers' MyWatcher tracks computer-product auctions.
Search Blitz
Type your query into one of these metasearch engines and hit dozens of search sites at once.
C4
Customize your searches to include the latest news.
DogPile
Search 15 popular search engines and services as well as Usenet and various Web-based news services.
InferenceFind
Pulls the maximum hits allowed by each of the top search engines, merges the list, and discards duplicates.
Mamma.com
Covers the top 10 popular search services and scours yellow and white pages and reverse-listing directories.
SavvySearch
Search more than two dozen of the top engines and guides on the Web, or hone in on any of 24 specific topics.
