FirstStop Blog

Web Finalist 0.9.2.9 is available for downloading.

2008-05-29T05:22:00.000-07:00

We have an update of Web Finalist - our real-time search tool that scans predefined collections of web pages for specific information.

This update fixes a nasty bug that would cause Web Finalist freeze when scanning particular web pages. It happened very very seldom.

The bug has something to do with Internet Explorer 6. When you try to search those pages in IE, it also freezes. Even Google toolbar is affected by this bug.

Finally, we have found a workaround. Now you can download the new version 0.9.2.9 which should be more stable than the previous version.

News from AvasTon.

2008-04-09T06:55:00.000-07:00

There is an update from AvasTon: Google engine module (v5.4) for FirstStop WebSearch. If you want more than 10 results for your Google searches, you should consider updating engines (menu "File/Update Engines")

Engine update: Yahoo, Search.com, HotBot, Netscape, DogPile, Gigablast

2008-03-06T09:41:00.000-08:00

The following search sources in FirstStop WebSearch have been updated today.

Yahoo
Search.com
HotBot
Netscape
DogPile
Gigablast

Don't forget to check for updates from time to time (menu "File/Update Engines").

MSN's misleading user interface

2007-10-29T11:41:00.000-07:00

Rebecca from SEOMoz recently shared her user experience with MSN web search. She found it very confusing and puzzling how MSN changes counts when you reach the last page of search results (although you might not even expect it to be the last page because of the estimates you saw on the previous pages).

We, at FirstStop WebSearch, have been working with search engines for the last seven years, and, among the major search engines, MSN/Live.com has always been the most inconsistent in terms of the user experience relating to the last page of search results.

Not long ago they had an effective limit of only 250 results per query. But they would never hide links to pages #26, 27, etc. You could even go as far as page #1000, but those pages would only show a random number (usually two or three) of results which you had already seen on pages 1 through 25. Really strange and perplexing behavior.

Now that they have increased the limit to 1,000 search results per search, you won't see those weird semi-filled pages with search results from previous pages, but the new user interface is still very misleading.

It looks like they try to keep providing web searchers with optimistic estimates until they hit the limit.

The last legitimate page of search results (#100) displays their real estimate of total search results for your query, with links to the "next" pages (despite the fact that those pages don't exist).

As you can see, when you are on page #100, MSN still displays navigation links to pages #101, #102, #103, and #104 as if they could display more results. But we all know it is not true. And at Microsoft they know it even better.

If you click "Next" (or "101", "102, etc), you'll see page #100 again, but the optimistic estimates are no longer there. Without any explanation, MSN changes the estimate from 58,500,000 to 1,000 results. And the "Next" links are removed. Confusing, isn't it?

OK. The phrase, "Page 100 of 1,000 results", leaves room for various interpretations. It can be read as: "You are viewing page #100 of the top 1,000 results for your search." So, technically, the phrase is correct. But other pages of MSN search results (which we deal with much more often than with page #100), have trained us to read this phrase as "You are viewing page #100 of the total 1,000 results we have for your search."

What we have here is unsatisfied expectations and a bad user experience.

I understand why MSN/Live displays a maximum of 1,000 search results, and I don't mind it. All major search engines have this limit. What I don't understand is why Microsoft prefers to lie to us and provides us with misleading navigation and status information.

Why do they display links to the "next" page when we are already on page #100 and they know there are no more pages they can display? Why not just be honest and add some warning at the bottom of the last page that they don't provide search results beyond 1,000?

P.S. The good thing is that MSN knows that their search engine is not perfect. And they want to improve it. On some pages, right below the navigation links, you can see their call for feedback: "Are you satisfied with Live Search? Tell us about it". So if you find their user interface misleading, be sure to drop them a line.

Engine update: About, All the Web, Lycos, Scrub The Web, Yahoo.

2007-10-08T14:29:00.000-07:00

The following search sources in FirstStop WebSearch have been updated today.

About
All The Web
Lycos
Scrub The Web
Yahoo

Don't forget to check for updates from time to time (menu "File/Update Engines").

Engine update: Yahoo, Lycos, Voila.

2007-08-14T14:17:00.000-07:00

The following search sources in FirstStop WebSearch have been updated today.

Yahoo! (should be faster now)
Lycos
Voila

LookSmart's web search doesn't seem to work. For every search it returns: "We're sorry. We did not find results for your search." (example: Dallas). Sad.

Don't forget to check for updates from time to time (menu "File/Update Engines").

SEOMoz' Long List of Link Searches --- The FirstStop Way

2007-08-07T04:28:00.000-07:00

This post will demonstrate some of FirstStop WebSearch’s advanced features in a real world example based on a blog post Long List of Link Searches from SEOMoz where Rand Fishkin writes about the competitive intelligence aspects in SEO (Search Engine Optimization), particularly in link building.

As I read this article, I realized that FirstStop WebSearch fits well with the techniques he describes, so I decided to test-drive them.

Rand picked a website (EvoGear.com) and one of their primary keyword phrases "snowboard equipment". Then he illustrated how to perform searches that will result in high quality link acquisition targets.

His #1 rule is:

You should perform all of these searches at each of the major engines (Google, Yahoo!, MSN & Ask - yes, even Ask, as they often link to some very valuable and achievable link sources).

Good. In FirstStop I can search these four engines simultaneously (actually I can search many more engines all at once, but let's stick to these four in our test-drive).

Next step:

Basically, we're seeking every possible permutation of the term/phrase - links from any of the top ranking sites (#1-100, depending on competitiveness) will provide high value. As you go down the list, you can also use these modified terms/phrases to get extra results from the other sources.

snowboard equipment
"snowboard equipment"
snow board equipment
"snow board equipment"
snowboard
"snow board"
snowboards
"snow boards"

OK. This seems to be a good task for the FirstStop WebSearch batch search feature.

Since the four search engines have similar phrase syntax, we can use the Simple Batch wizard (menu Batch/Simple Batch).

Simple Batch dialog box

Just copy all the search terms into the text box. Change the search limits to 100 results per search engine (as Rand suggests). You can leave the default 500 results per search intact since any value more than 400 will work for four engines with 100 results maximum. Now click "OK".

Batch Editor dialog box

You will see eight searches prepared in the Batch Editor. Although it is not necessary, you might want to change the directory where the search results will be saved.

Now I'm ready to start the search. Just click the "Start" button.

FirstStop WebSearch will automatically perform all searches and compile the search results. Once the batch search is complete, you will see a report. Here is my report:

"snow board equipment" 292 results
"snow board" 353 results
"snow boards" 335 results
"snowboard equipment" 312 results
snow board equipment 376 results
snowboard 324 results
snowboard equipment 306 results
snowboards 272 results

FirstStop automatically removes duplicate links (site.com and www.site.com, and www.site.com/index.html are not considered as duplicates though), so the numbers in the report indicate only unique links. Now you can see why you should use more than one search engine; for the selected engines, about 75% of top 100 search results are unique.

Now let's get back to our search results and see what we can do with them using FirstStop WebSearch.

First of all, you can see all the recent searches saved in the "History" pane.

Search history pane

Double-click any of them to see the corresponding search results. You can click on the column headers to sort the results. For example, let's sort by "Hits" to see how many of the search results overlap. Results with "4" in the "Hits" column are full duplicates (they exist in top 100 search results of each search engine). Here are the numbers of full duplicates:

snowboards - 13
snowboard equipment - 3
snowboard - 2
snow board equipment - 0
"snowboard equipment" - 5
"snow boards" - 2
"snow board" - 3
"snow board equipment" - 9

Surprising, isn't it?

In the "Engines" column, you will find other SEO-specific information - the names of the search engine(s) where a link was found. In parenthesis, next to each search engine name, you will see the position of the link in the corresponding engine's search results.

Let's go further. On the left side of FirstStop you will see the Discovery Tree. It's a really useful tool for our task.

Discovery Tree with different branches expanded

Let's start with the "Search Sources" section. Here you can see the engine names and the number of search results FirstStop has retrieved from them. You can click an engine name and, in the search results list on the right, you will see only search results originating from that engine. Click "All Search Sources" to see all search results.

In the "Domains" section you will see the search results broken down by TLD (top level domains) and corresponding countries. You can expand the top level domains to see the web sites in those domains and the number of links to those web sites. Just click any site or TLD to restrict the search results to the selected site or domain.

The remaining section of the Discovery Tree breaks down the search results by words and phrases most frequently found in the search results. An SEO specialist can use this section to identify new variations of search terms and have a snapshot of keywords used on the competitive websites (we are talking about the competitive intelligence aspects of SEO, aren't we?).

The searches I just performed, Rand calls "obvious". Then he suggests that we proceed with the engines' advanced query parameters, such as:

allintitle:snowboard equipment
allinanchor:snowboard equipment
allinurl:snowboard equipment
allintext:snowboard equipment

You can use those parameters in the "Simple Search" mode, because, in this mode, FirstStop passes the search strings to search engines intact.

Search results for allinurl:snowboard equipment

To use the engines' advanced parameters in the Batch Search, make sure to select one search engine at a time, because each engine has its own set of advanced parameters.

Then Rand suggests using Alternative Search Sources:

The main indices are great ways to define value, but adding in some alternate sources for link searches can help to diversify. The engines might not always consider these sources as important (which is why I'd stick to only the highest profile sites/pages in these results), but they can often be great sources for traffic.

OK. As you know, FirstStop has many pre-installed search sources and almost any other search source can be added into FirstStop WebSearch.

The rest of Rand’s suggested searches (Directory Search Terms, Blog & Forum Searches, Submit-Type Searches) are just variations of the batch searches. Just compile your list of search terms and copy them into the "Simple Batch" dialog box.

As you can see, FirstStop fits well with the techniques Rand describes in his blog post. But why use FirstStop WebSearch instead of your web browser? There are quite a few good reasons to do this.

FirstStop provides a single interface for searching multiple search sources.
FirstStop automatically saves all searches.
FirstStop has handy filtering and sorting tools.
But the main reason is FirstStop saves a lot of time.

Just estimate the volume of searches. Even without the searches from the "Alternative Search Sources" section, there are 72 suggested Google searches in the blog post. That means 288 searches on all four major search engines.

If you don't know how much time that could take, use our online productivity calculator. For this task, enter the following values: 28800 results (288 searches, 100 results per search) and 100 results per page (as Rand suggested). The calculator estimates more than 12 hours of search if you do it in your web browser. You can even reduce the "Results Store Time" in the advanced option to only five seconds (you still need to save the search results, don't you?), but the task still takes more than seven hours to complete.

Seven hours of hard repetitive work before you can even start to work with the search results. On the other hand, you can have FirstStop do all this work for you in much less time.

Feel free to ask questions and request similar demonstrations of other FirstStop features. You can leave your comments here or use a contact form on our site.

Engine update: Britannica, Daypop, Law.com

2007-08-01T15:22:00.000-07:00

The following search sources in FirstStop WebSearch have been updated today.

Britannica
Daypop
Law.com

Scrub The Web doesn't work. Its site says: "The new Scrub The Web search engine is coming soon..."

Don't forget to check for updates from time to time (menu "File/Update Engines").

Online productivity calculator: More visual and accurate results.

2007-07-19T15:10:00.000-07:00

Last month we introduced the beta version of our online web search productivity calculator. We now have an updated beta version on the website. The most visible change is the productivity graph. Now you will not only see the time and money expended data based on your request, but also see how the productivity changes over the course of time. The less visible change is in the algorithm used in the calculator. Now it more accurately estimates the productivity of the manual approach. In our recent post Automated vs Manual. How much faster?, where we explained the mathematical computations used in our calculator, we introduced a fatigue coefficient that denotes how much slower a human searcher will process each successive page of search results. This coefficient takes into account the influence of fatigue and the likelihood that the searcher will get sidetracked or be disturbed in the middle of the task. In our productivity calculator, this coefficient is 3%. However, the original formula didn't reflect the fact that a searcher typically takes short breaks and goes to lunch. Let's assume that our fatigue coefficient covers the time of those breaks (it just distributes them evenly throughout the work time). But another aspect of "human nature" is, after getting some rest, we are usually fresh and full of energy. And our productivity is as high as in the beginning of the work day. The new algorithm takes into account the effect that these breaks have on an individual’s work output. When the time spans between successive pages of search results reach 10 minutes, the calculator assumes that the searcher has had some rest and her productivity is high again. You can see this effect on the graph if you enter, for example, 2000 search results and 10 results per page. Now test our online calculator and let us know what you think about it. We are also interested in real life stories about web search productivity. Did you try to manually compile large lists of search results? Or did you use FirstStop WebSearch Business Edition withmaximum "results per search engine/search" settings? How did your productivity compare with the results of our productivity calculator? You can either comment in this blog post or use a contact form on the online productivity calculator web page.

Vista Screenshots of FirstStop WebSearch

2007-07-14T11:53:00.001-07:00

Some people ask us if FirstStop is compatible with Windows Vista. Allthough we still don't have a 100% compatible version that supports all the new Vista features, the current version of FirstStop WebSearch works reasonably well on Vista. Here you can see some Vista screenshots of FirstStop WebSearch Business Edition v5.0 Note that in the current version 5.0.3 the domain information in the Discovery Tree is more complete.

2007-07-08T15:42:00.000-07:00

Engine update: Business.com, Voila, Yahoo!

The following search sources in FirstStop WebSearch have been updated today.

Business.com
Voila
Yahoo!

Don't forget to check for updates from time to time (menu "File/Update Engines").

Automated vs Manual. How much faster?

2007-06-20T11:30:00.000-07:00

Everyone knows that if the same task can be executed both by a man and a computer, the task will be completed much faster by a computer. The question is how much faster. The answer depends on many things, so let's be specific and estimate the difference for a task that is familiar to us – web search. If you don't want to read all the mathematical details, you can go straight to the conclusions, view the performance graphs (click the thumbnails), or check our online productivity calculator.

Productivity estimates graphs

If you want to know the details of our calculations, keep on reading. The task is to compile a list of search results. Here is the manual approach:

Open a search engine's web page, enter a query, and click “Search”. The timing begins here.
The web page with search results is being loaded. On slow connections and with slow search engines this may take some time. Let's call it “load time” (t_load).
Then the searcher should store the results somewhere – Word, Excel, or anything you use to store the gathered search results. This may take anywhere from a dozen seconds to several minutes (e.g., if you want to store URLs, Titles, and Descriptions of search results in separate columns of your spreadsheet or database). Let's call it “store time” (t_store).
Now the searcher clicks “Next” and repeats steps 2 and 3 for the next page of search results.
Lather, rinse, and repeat until the desired number of search results is gathered.

Here is the most simple and straightforward automated approach:

Open a program, enter a query, and click “Search”. The timing begins here.
As in the manual approach, the web page with search results will be compiled by the search engine and then downloaded by our program. This will most likely result in the same “load time” (t_load).
Then the program will to store the search results in its list. This will be the “automated store time” (t_{automated_store}).
Now the program loads the next page of search results.
Lather, rinse, repeat until the desired number of search results is gathered.
If needed, the complete list of search results can be exported to an application of your choice (e.g., Word, Excel, etc.).

Let's assume that the search engine provides N results per page. So the number of pages we need to process will be: N_pages = N_{total_results}/N_{results_per_page} So far the calculations seem to be pretty easy. The time needed to compile the list of search results will be: T_manual = N_pages * (t_load + t_store) and T_automated = N_pages * (t_load + t_{automated_store}) correspondingly. However, while the formula for the automated approach is rather accurate, it is not all that simple with humans. With such repetitive operations, we humans can quickly get tired and bored. It is easy for us to get sidetracked in the middle of a task. We can be interrupted by a phone call or a colleague. We might want to check some search result right away or go get some coffee. All this things make the actual total time for the manual approach greater than result you would obtain using the formula shown above. Let's add this notorious “human factor” to our formula. It is clear that the more pages the searcher needs to process, the more tired she gets, the more chances she will have to get sidetracked or be disturbed. So let's introduce a fatigue coefficient (k) that indicates how much slower the store time will be for each successive page. The fatigue coefficient of 1.05 indicates that it will take 5% more time to store the results for each successive page: e.g., first page - 20 seconds; second -21 seconds; third – 22.05, etc. Now the formula is more accurate but more complex at the same time. T_manual = n*t_load + t_store + t_store*k + t_store*k² + ... + t_store*k^n-1, where n is N_pages Most likely you will need a spreadsheet to calculate the total time for a significant number of pages. Or you can use our online productivity calculator. This calculator estimates the total times and RPM (results per minute) for both approaches and compares them in terms of saved time and money (check advanced options). The fatigue coefficient used in the calculator is 1.03 (3%). 8 hour work days used in the estimation for long lasting tasks. Conclusions

The productivity of an automated search solution doesn't depend on the number of search results you need to gather. The cost of processing each page is the same.
The productivity of human searchers decreases with every additional page of search results.

Which approach to choose?

If you only need one page of search results, you shouldn't bother with any specialized solution. Just go to your favorite search engine.
If you need to collect search results from about a dozen web pages, the advantages of an automated solution will be minimal. You should consider automation only if you often perform such tasks.
If you need to process really large volumes of search results, an automated solution is the only reasonable choice. It would take a whole work day for a human search to collect results from 300 web pages, while a computer program can complete such a task in just half an hour.

Any questions and comments are welcome.

digg it : add to del.icio.us

Engine update: Ask.com, Search.com, Voila

2007-06-09T02:54:00.000-07:00

The following search sources in FirstStop WebSearch have been updated today.

Ask.com
Search.com
Voila

Don't forget to check for updates from time to time (menu "File/Update Engines").

FirstStop WebSearch v5.0 Released.

2007-05-16T13:25:00.000-07:00

The long awaited version 5 of FirstStop WebSearch has been released. The new version makes FirstStop more powerful and more focused on increasing web searchers' productivity in business environments. What's new in version 5.0?

Improved search engine specification allows users to work with more search engine types and obtain an increased level of detail in search results.
Improved support for international characters and non-English language searches.
Batch searching. Multiple searches can be entered as a batch, and FirstStop will automatically retrieve and save search results for every search in the batch.
RSS support. RSS search feeds can be easily added to FirstStop WebSearch. FirstStop WebSearch can export search results to RSS 2.0 format.
New Discovery Tree enhancements help break down search results not only by keywords and phrases, but also by domains and countries, and search sources.
Handy desktop search bar provides users with a quick way to start searches whenever you need it without having to launch FirstStop WebSearch.
New Configuration Wizard that helps new users get started.
Many more minor modifications and improvements.

You can download a free 30 day trial version here.

FirstStop WebSearch v5. Simplified Product Offerings.

2007-04-22T03:53:00.000-07:00

Pre-release Notice In an ongoing effort to simplify the online experience for our customers, we have resolved to reduce the number of versions of FirstStop WebSearch offered on our website. We have observed that prospective customers are often confused by which of the various licenses offered will best meet their needs, and we decided that going forward we will offer one commercial version ("Business Edition") and one non-commercial version ("Free Edition"). Existing customers will want to know that the "Free Edition" is comprised of the Standard Edition along with new v5 features. The "Business Edition" is the "Deluxe Edition" plus the new v5 features. Visual Edition v5 will not officially be available any more, but we'll offer a special upgrade version of Visual Edition v5 for current users who still want to use the visual features of FirstStop. Version 5 will officially be released this spring; watch for our updated website! Registered users will also be notified by email when the release is available.

Engine update: Yahoo, Lycos, HotBot, Search.com

2006-08-21T13:44:00.000-07:00

The following search sources in FirstStop WebSearch have been updated today.

Yahoo
Lycos
HotBot
Search.com

Don't forget to check for updates from time to time (menu "File/Update Engines").

FirstStop WebSearch Standard Edition 5.0 Beta is available for downloading.

2006-05-28T12:46:00.000-07:00

What's new in version 5.0?

Improved search engine specification allows users to work with more search engine types and obtain increased detail level of search results.
Improved support for international characters and non-English language searches.
Handy desktop search bar provides users with a quick way to start searches whenever you need it without having to launch FirstStop WebSearch.
New Discovery Tree enhancements help break down search results not only by keywords and phrases but also by domains, countries, and search sources.

Version 5.0 can coexist with the previous versions of FirstStop on the same computer. It is safe to install this beta version even if you have a registered Deluxe Edition or Visual Edition.

Download link

Commercial editions of FirstStop WebSearch v5.0 will be available this summer. If you pruchased v4.x after February 28, 2006, the major upgrade to v5.0 will be free. The rest registered users of FirstStop WebSearch will be offered special upgrade prices.

Engine update: Lycos, Teoma, Ask Jeeves, MetaCrawler, Britannica, Suite101

2006-03-06T08:10:00.000-08:00

The following search sources in FirstStop WebSearch have been updated today. Lycos (All editions) Ask Jeeves (Deluxe & Visual) MetaCrawler (Deluxe & Visual) Britannica (All editions) Suite101 (Deluxe & Visual) Teoma has been removed from FirstStop WebSearch because this search engine is now merged with Ask.com Don't forget to check for updates from time to time (menu "File/Update Engines").

FirstStop WebSearch v4.21 - minor upgrade with Monarch Search integration.

2005-10-18T13:19:00.000-07:00

This upgrade fixes minor bugs found in version 4.2, updates search sources (engines) and introduces Monarch Search integration. As you may already know, we have a new product called Monarch Search, the web site investigation and tracking tool. This week we have finally released version 1.0. Thanks to all of you who helped us test it. This new tool perfectly complements FirstStop WebSearch. FirstStop helps you find web sites of interest, and Monarch Search will help you further explore those sites, analyze their structure, and locate hard-to-find content, saving you countless browsing hours. In addition, Monarch Search can track web sites for specific types of changes and notify you and/or your colleagues when they are detected. You can read more about Monarch Search here. With Monarch Search integration in FirstStop WebSearch v4.21, the two tools will seamlessly work together. In FirstStop WebSearch results, when you see a web site that you want to explore, just right-click on the search result and choose "Site Investigation (Monarch Search)". It will open Monarch Search, ready to explore the selected web site. Note: Monarch Search integration will only work on computers with Monarch Search v1 installed. You can download a 30 day free trial of Monarch Search at http://www.MonarchSearch.com/. Direct download link (about 1.6Mb): http://www.monarchsearch.com/download/MonarchSearchSetup.exe If you are a registered user of FirstStop WebSearch, you will be contacted shortly with the upgrade instructions. This upgrade (as with all minor upgrades) is free for you. If you don't receive the instructions, please contact us at feedback (at) brushgroup (dot) com.

Engine update: "Finance" search category

2005-09-15T14:27:00.000-07:00

The "Finance" search category of FirstStop WebSearch has been updated today (Deluxe & Visual only).

Don't forget to check for updates from time to time (menu "File/Update Engines").

BookmarkSync Added to the "Social Bookmarks" Category of FirstStop WebSearch.

2005-09-01T14:37:00.000-07:00

We added one more search source to our "Social Bookmarks" category - BookmarkSync. Just update engines (menu "File/Update Engines") and choose the "Social Bookmarks" category (menu "Categories/Social Bookmarks") - you will find BookmarkSync there. What is BookmarkSync? BookmarkSync is a social bookmark community offering real-time automatic synchronization services that allow you to access your bookmarks and favorites from any computer or any browser, anywhere in the world. Real-time RSS feeds power your PC and mobile devices. Read more about the "Social Bookmarks" category.

Engine update: Ask Jeeves, GigaBlast, HotBot, MetaCrawler

2005-08-14T14:45:00.000-07:00

The following search sources in FirstStop WebSearch have been updated today.

Don't forget to check for updates from time to time (menu "File/Update Engines").

A new beta of Monarch Search.

2005-06-18T15:21:00.000-07:00

A new beta of Monarch Search is available. You can download it here: http://www.monarchsearch.com/download/MonarchSearchBetaSetup.exe

What's new in this beta(0.9.1.21):

Check "Extra Info" to find META tags for each web page and information stored in the robots.txt files.
Integration with Microsoft Internet Explorer (check the context menu) .
You can now sort tables by clicking on column headers.
The new beta can assume that domainname.com = www.domainname.com when building a site map.
The new beta supports FTP sites and detects lost Internet connection.
It can also alert you of changes via SMS.

By the way, we will release version 1.0 soon. You can register you copy of Monarch Search at a 50% discount now and get version 1.0 free of charge when it is released.

“Social Bookmarks” in FirstStop WebSearch

2005-06-01T02:40:00.000-07:00

Let me introduce you to a new search category – “Social Bookmarks”. Many of you have already heard about social bookmarking systems such as del.icio.us, Furl.net, or Spurl.net, which have gained popularity over the past few years. These systems allow you to bookmark web pages, annotate them, and then access your bookmarks from any computer connected to the Internet. And, of course, you can share your bookmarks with other people – that is why they are called “social”. From the web searcher’s point of view, social bookmarking systems are searchable directories of high-quality content - web pages hand-picked and categorized by users of such services. The search results are highly relevant and free from "spam". What can you find by searching social bookmarks? Just think about what kind of pages you usually bookmark yourself. Most likely it will be useful services, interesting articles, or important data. You can find similar things by searching social bookmarks. If you think that you would bookmark a page with information that you are looking for, the chances are that someone else has already bookmarked it. Or will do it soon… The only problem is the number of web pages in the databases of social bookmarking systems. They operate with much fewer pages than major search engines. Nonetheless, the most popular systems, such as Furl.net and Spurl.net, already have several million web pages in their databases. And this number grows every day, even every hour, as more and more people become active users. (By the way, why don’t you sign up with a social bookmarking system, if you haven’t already, and contribute your own bookmarks?) To maximize the benefit of social bookmarks for web searchers and to provide access to a larger number of bookmarked pages, FirstStop WebSearch combines the most popular services into one meta-search category, which allows users to query multiple social bookmarking systems all at once and receive an aggregated list of search results. The pre-installed (in version 4.2) category “Social Bookmarks” contains the following search sources: LookSmart's Furl.net, CiteULike.org, and Zniff.com, a search engine for the Spurl.net. Anticipating your question about del.icio.us, I can tell you that we didn’t include this very popular social bookmarks manager only because it doesn’t have a search facility. A little hint to new FirstStop users: To switch to the “Social Bookmarks” category, choose “Social Bookmarks” from the “Categories” menu. (You don’t have the “Categories” menu? You should upgrade to version 4.2.) About social bookmarking services used in the “Social Bookmarks” category: Zniff.com - "the human search engine". Zniff uses human information from normal Internet users, such as yourself, to find and rank web pages. The results you see on Zniff are from a collection of about 2 million bookmarks gathered by the users of the Spurl.net bookmarking service. Spurl.net is an advanced bookmarking service that allows you to easily keep track of all the information you consume online. Furl.net is a free service that saves a personal copy of any page you find on the Web, and lets you find it again instantly by searching your archive of pages. It's your Personal Web. CiteULike is a free service to help academics share, store, and organize the academic papers they are reading. When you see a paper on the web that interests you, you can click one button and have it added to your personal library. CiteULike automatically extracts the citation details, so there's no need to type them in yourself. It all works from within your web browser. There's no need to install any special software. Interesting articles about social bookmarks. Social Bookmarking Tools (I): A General Review John Battelle's Searchblog: Grokking Furl: Storage, Search, and the PersonalWeb PassingNotes.com » Interview: Hjalmar Gislason and the egress of Spurl.net The New Wave of Bookmarks

FirstStop WebSearch v4.2 Released.

2005-05-24T10:36:00.000-07:00

What's new in this version?

Auto-Discovery - The Discovery Tree is on by default.
New "Social Bookmarks" search category - Search millions of pages bookmarked by users of Furl.net, Spurl.net and CiteULike.org. More about Social Bookmarks in my next post...
Integration with Web Finalist™ - With a single click you export search results to our new tool, Web Finalist™, to scan them for specific information.
New "Minimize to tray" setting - Choose whether you want to minimize the program window to tray or not.
Easy access to search categories from the main menu.
Improved "Merge Results" feature (Deluxe Edition and Visual Edition).
New results are highlighted when you repeat searches (Deluxe Edition and Visual Edition).

You can download the new version from our site: http://www.firststopwebsearch.com/downloads.html If you are a registered user of FirstStop WebSearch, you will be contacted shortly with the upgrade instructions. This upgrade (as with all minor upgrades) is free for you. If you don't receive the instructions, please contact us at feedback (at) brushgroup.com.