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The Internet still being in its infancy, it is no surprise that almost every month or so, we learn about a new, must-see website that fills a long-overdue gap among web services, or about a new Internet tool that substantially improves our surfing experience. Such truly indispensable web services include, but are by no means limited to, JimTools Keyword Analizer Tool, SiteCook Search Engine Report, various website/link/HTML checkers etc., while obligatory software tools include surfing accelerators, such as Webcelerator, and download managers, such as FlashGet. Among such indispensable tools, I would certainly include a search bot such as WebFerret. In fact, given that there are literally hundreds of search engines, it is just too time-consuming to visit each one separately to find something. That's why metasearch engines were born: but it was soon discovered that opening four frames in your browser and displaying results from four search engines contemporarily (see, for instance, Art Power) wasn't the right thing. So they shifted to another solution: integrating the results from various search engines into one conglobated, weighed listing (to see this at work, visit Inquirus or Ixquick, for example). This approach being, at least in my humble opinion, the best so far, it didn't take long to get implemented in software as well.
So, what do we have here? WebFerret: a lightweight, 1.2 MB executable overloaded with ads (at least the free version of WebFerret is) that basically searches several search engines contemporarily (you may even use Boolean operators in your query), returning a sorted selection of web pages it found, just like an ordinary, online search engine would. You then click on any link and it opens in your browser (WebFerret supports Netscape Navigator and Communicator, Microsoft Internet Explorer, America Online, Corel Netscape, Cyberjack Web, NetCaptor and Opera), just like with an online search engine. You can then tell WebFerret to validate the results and mark any unreachable or non-existent pages. Of course, the listing can be saved - say, in HTML format, so you can reopen it any time in your browser and start clicking on the links you deem interesting.
Test Report - Pros
WebFerret is comparatively lightweight, as utilities should always be. This means: a lightning-fast download, a swift installation, and off you go. On my system, WebFerret's window opens instantly upon launching, which is to say about a hundred times faster than Internet Explorer's. Don't you just hate 'em programmers who assume that just because you have 60 GB of disk space and 512 MB of RAM, they are allowed to fill it up to the very last byte with their bulkware?
Free.
Quick as a breeze. And effective too. No online search engine can compete.
You can click on any link in the results list and it automatically opens in your browser. But.
Test Report - Cons
But. The page opens in a two-frame window, the left frame being reserved for WebFerret's promotions, ads, and similar nagware. Of course, this side frame disappears when you purchase the full version. Or so they say, at least: I've never purchased it. I would just like to make a point here: I've nothing against WebFerret's own banner (that displays in WebFerret's main window). I could live with that all my life, happily using WebFerret, and never even think of another search bot. But that browser frame - that's simply one banner too many. Just greed pure and simple. If FlashGet (a far more complex software than WebFerret is) can manage with just a small main-window banner, why can't WebFerret? Actually, that browser frame made me dump WebFerret and put my money into Copernic instead. Yeah, you marketing "experts" at ZDNet, read and behold! We consumers are strange, unpredictable beasts indeed!
WebFerret has very meagre configuration options. You practically get a search bot "as-is". For a greater host of features and customized use, you will have to resort to a heavier tool, such as Copernic.
Test Report - Tips, Tricks and Tweaks
General
Purchase it, if you find it useful. And if you can't afford it, use it as it is - don't search for a cracked version. There have been reports that various "cracks" available on the web don't "crack" anything. Apparently, judging by WebFerret's website, the free and the full versions are truly different programs, so you just can't "modify" the free version and transform it into a functional full version. Although I wouldn't bet on that.
