Search Utilities
By Yael Li-Ron

From PC World.com

August 1, 2000
Besides using search sites on the Web, you can install search utilities on your hard drive. Here are three we recommend.

Copernic 2000 4.5
Though Copernic isn't a search engine per se, it raises online research to new heights by offering impressive organization and collaboration tools. You can save results to custom folders, e-mail results to others, eliminate broken links by clicking on the Validate button, and sort entries by relevance and other criteria. Like a metacrawler, the free version submits your query to dozens of search engines simultaneously. The Plus and Pro versions ($40 and $80, respectively) work with hundreds of general and specialized engines, and let you perform such advanced options as removing banner ads from results pages and (in the Pro version) running unattended, scheduled searches. Get a free version at FileWorld.

GuruNet
This tiny, free utility (available at FileWorld) lets you find references, definitions, and links to any word displayed on your screen. Launch any application (Web browser, word processor, and so on), and Alt-click any word you want to research. Within seconds, a pop-up box will show you information that's pertinent to the word you clicked. For instance, if you click on a company name, you'll get stock information about that business, a corporate address, and a map displayed on the left-hand pane of the small screen. Click on the name of a city, and you'll get dictionary definitions, encyclopedia entries, traffic information, and weather. Clicking on other terms may generate links to financial information (provided by sites such as Motley Fool) or a stock chart (from StockPoint.com). Simply put, GuruNet is a must-have.

X-Portal
Combining the timeliness of online data and the speed of accessing 22 localized reference tools (dictionaries, encyclopedias, almanacs, and an atlas), X-Portal is ideal for the avid researcher. The $60 CD-ROM program needs about 200 megabytes of hard disk space; it integrates into Internet Explorer (version 4.01 or higher). X-Portal queries multiple search engines and its built-in reference works, then sorts results by relevance. The program weeds out many superfluous and not-so-relevant links from the list it presents to you at the end of the search.

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