The Internet Hotel

by Rich Cunningham

CRASH-BOOM-KAWHUMPF-CRACKLE-WHOOSH-BANG-CRASH-SMACK-BANGLE-SNAP
.........tingle-ling-a-ling

"Gotta clean that closet out one of these days" !!!

The preceding scene is from the classic radio comedy, "Fibber McGee and Molly", a mainstay from the 1930's until the late 1950's. One of the running gags on the show was Fibber's closet, and what was in it. It was always packed to the rafters with all sorts of junk and other stuff. When it was opened at some point in the show, everything in it fell out with a symphony of sound effects. Today it is remembered as one of icons of old time radio.

The Internet today reminds me of Fibber McGee's closet. It is full of all kinds of material, a potpourri of data that contains something for everybody. But how does one find what they are looking for in this vast area? Pick up a road map at your local Triple-A? Not hardly. The best way to find an item is to use a search engine. A search engine is a program that will go out over the vast reaches of cyberspace, search for the information you have requested, and give you some options of what to look at and where to find it. There are several good search engines out on the net already, such as Alta Vista, Yahoo!, and Infoseek.

However a problem exists with search engines. That problem is that they tend be limited in the area they can search, for whatever reason. The Internet is so vast and wide reaching, that to expect one search engine to find everything is hoping for too much. The best idea would be for one program to check multiple search engines, and give results based on these searches. And where might one find such a program? I am glad you asked. You don't have to go any further than your closest computer store and buy a copy of Internet FastFind from Symantec Corporation. This is the same company that features Norton Utilities, Norton Navigator, etc.

Internet FastFind is a collection of programs that allow a user to conduct searches of the Internet in a variety of ways. These eight programs are easy to use, and provide a thorough and comprehensive means to find the information that is needed to complete the task at hand. The programs are:

• WebFind: a tool that searches eight of the top Web search engines simultaneously, and prioritizes results to give a user the most information in the least amount of time.

• NetFileFind: similar to WebFind, except the search is conducted for a specific file name, or even part of a file name;

• Notify: automatically tracks and alerts the user to changes in favorite folders, files, FTP and Web sites;

• PatchConnect: searches the Web for patches and driver updates after searching a users' system and identifying the installed hardware and software;

• WebLaunch: allows the launching of favorite sites from the taskbar, without having to first launch a browser;

• EasyFTP: access to FTP sites, and download files via drag-and-drop, hundreds of sites are included;

• EasyZIP: treats zipped files like regular files;

• LiveUpdate: allows free updating of Internet FastFind over the Web.

The purpose of the programs described above is evident from the description of them. Rather than try to describe each in detail, I will describe the way I used to find some information using WebFind.

My daughter needed some information on orangutans for a report on endangered species for a school report. I entered the word "orangutan" in the topic column, and hit the find button. In 2 minutes, the program had searched 8 search engines, sorted them, eliminated duplicate pages, and presented me with 50 different entries to visit. Each page gave enough information to decide if the site contained the exact data needed, or if I could keep looking at the others. To me, that is a lot of information in a very short time. It is possible to change the amount of time that searches are conducted, to allow for more in-depth searches. One can also limit the number of returns from each engine, and choose which of the engines are used. This feature alone is worth the $49.95 price of the product.

The most beneficial aspect of WebFind is its ability to conduct searches simultaneously over all or part of the search engines. It is, in my opinion, the ultimate search tool for the Web. The only drawback to it is the inability to add new search engines manually. There are eight included with the program and that will usually be adequate. But if you have a favorite that isn't included, then you won't be able to use it with this program. This program is also limited to Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0 systems. If your system can run those operating systems, then you will be able to use this product. However, it does appear that we are starting to see products that do not run on Windows 3.x platforms. I think that is a trend that will continue.

I can't say enough about this product. It has replaced a couple of programs that I had on my system. I can safely say that you will not be sorry if you purchase this program. It will definitely help you sort out the Fibber McGee's closet of cyberspace.

"Finally got that closet cleaned out" !!