Software

WebFerret

Internet would make no sense if there were no on-line search engines. Altavista, HotBot, Lycos, Excite, InfoSeek, Yahoo! and WebCrawler are the most  used and known  (see "Searching Medical Information in the Internet", in  issue 1 of Intermedic). The problem is that there is a growing number of search engines. The results of a search are pratically never the same, because each engine has different degrees of coverage and different search algorithms. Thus, it would be a good idea to have a unique search engine, which would consult all the other engines and summarize the results, eliminating duplications and showing them according to an user-defined order. In this way, the user would have to type keywords only once.

WebFerret is a software that does exactly this. It accesses ten of the best known search engines in an efficient way, and can save results into a disk file, which later can be updadet by a new search. Each record in this file is an address (URL) obtained by the search and it has also the document title and the search engine and date where it was obtained. The listing can be ordered by URL or by search engine.

There are many other programs that do the same kind of search provided by WebFerret, and even some on-line services such as MetaCrawlwer (http://www.metacrawler.com). The advantage is that WebFerret is free and uses the best engines. It uses a modern technology called "autonomous agent", which visits and "talks" with the on-line search engines, getting the desired information according to each engine's characteristics. The company which developed WebFerret offers, also free of charge, other Ferrets, such as MailFerret (to find email addresses), NewsFerret (to find messages in newsgroups) and FileFerret (to find files available through FTP). All work under the same principle, but consulting different sources, appropriate for each case. The set of Ferret tools is produced for the Windows 95 operating system, and can be downloaded from  http://www.ferretsoft.com/net ferret/download.htm. There is a commercial version, with more resources than those present in the shareware version.

WebFerret is easily installed and has an easy and intuitive operation for any person who has already used a search engine on the Internet. The list of systems that WebFerret uses can be personalized, in part, by switching on or off specific engines (due to the agent's complexity, the user cannot add other search engines). The access speed will depend on your Internet connection and on the current availability of the on-line search engines (the program warns when there is an unavailable engine). Results can be saved with a distinct name, cut and pasted into other Windows 95 applications.

The only deficiency that we have noted is the impossibility of combining keyword through logical conectors like AND, OR, etc. This limits searches a lot. But if you like WebFerret, these resources are available in the commercial version.
 

Published by:     Center for Biomedical Informatics  State University of Campinas, Brazil   © 1997 Renato M.E. Sabbatini

Sponsored by:     Searle   Brazil