CNET Editors' review
Search engine technology has improved a lot over the past several years, and for the most part, you can depend on services like Google to return pretty relevant search results. Sometimes, however, you need a way to get a little more specific. That's where iMetaSearch comes in.
Let's say, for example, that you Google the word "cougar." Do you mean the animal, the car, or the recently popularized term for an older woman who pursues younger men? Google can't tell the difference, but iMetaSearch can. The program groups search results by concept; click the groups that interest you and the search results will be revised accordingly. This is a quick and commonsense way to refine search results and ensure that you're getting the most relevant results, and it's a great tool to use when you're searching for something that's somewhat ambiguous in meaning.
Using iMetaSearch is easy once you get the hang of it. But at first glance, it's kind of confusing. There are three panes, for groups of results, extracted words, and search results, and each of these is filled with color-coded grids of words. It's a bit cluttered and overwhelming at first. Fortunately, the built-in Help file is well written and provides plenty of information about using iMetaSearch. Although the design could be a bit better, overall we found iMetaSearch to be a powerful and easy-to-use search tool.
iMetaSearch is free. The program installs and uninstalls without issues. We recommend this program to all users.
Publisher's Description
From Puffinware:
Search engines can't group results based on meaning, but iMetaSearch can. iMetaSearch groups search results by concept; click the groups that interest you and the search results will be revised accordingly. This is a powerful way to refine searches. Searches can be exported to Excel for analysis, tracked over time, and refined easily. An expandable, sortable index is created that suggests additional words and phrases for further searches. Using the Pro version, results can be gathered from web pages, blogs, books, papers, news, etc. depending on which search engines you choose to include. Benefits and features include: 1) Get Better Results with Many Engines--if you use only one search engine, you may miss important results in your search. 2) Save Time through Smarter Exploration - iMetaSearch uses a cutting edge technology called Latent Semantic Analysis to group related results together and link up related topics, results and words. 3) Find People and Websites - filter the index words for people or websites or any text string. 4) Zoom In/Out on Topics and Words - use the topic and word sliders to zoom out and see the major topics and most common words, or zoom in and see the details. 5) Export Searches for Analysis - export search results or index words for further analysis. 6) Quickly Explore Related Area - use one click follow-up searches on any index word or phrase. 7) Track Changes in any Search - use one click to update any search and check for new results. iMetaSearch is designed for quick, interactive search and exploration of results. It is the first search tool to bring the benefits of using many search engines together with a powerful exploration interface based on Latent Semantic Analysis. Try it free at PuffinwareLLC.com and upgrade to Pro version at any time.
What's new in this version: Version 5.0 may include unspecified updates, enhancements, or bug fixes.
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All versions:
4.7 starsout of 3 votes
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Current version:
5.0 starsout of 1 votes
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My rating:
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"I found this to be an excellent tool - easy to use"
Version: iMetaSearch 5.0
Pros
So far I have only scratched the surface but already I count it as the best search engine I have ever used. It pulls in the kind of information I want and none of what I don't want (the .com crap)
Cons
To get the most out of it, I think I will need to put some time into really using how to use it - i.e. it is not all that intuitive.
Summary
Despite the steep learning curve, it is well worth the effort.
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