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REVIEWS



September 8, 2000

More Keywords Than
a Crossword Puzzle


Last year, the buzz word du jour was portal. Everyone wanted to create a portal, but few of the dreams ended happily. This year, a new site called InfoGrid wants to revitalize the word and, from my standpoint, it actually has a shot at it.


InfoGrid

(click to see larger image)
The site is arranged by topic and has a pull-down search bar.
InfoGrid's developer calls it a Master Internet Index Map--that's a pretty good description. The site features pre-formatted directories of popular topics arranged in Windows-like folders. You can drill down in each folder to hundreds of sub-folders for topics as varied as muscular development and the lotteries of 46 states. In effect, the site serves up the most popular and relevant sites for a wide variety of topics.

The site's other strong points are its multiple search engine and services capabilities. If you don't find the topic you're looking for in the InfoGrid map, you can search for it. Not only can you search the entire Web using keywords, you can also search multiple newswires, discussion forums, MP3 archives, job listing sites, auctions, and stores separately, using a pull-down menu. For example, the stores search menu is even broken down by store, with book, video, high technology, video game, music, and toy stores represented. In addition, InfoGrid caches requests and searches, so, according to the site's developer, if you search for a term that's already been returned for someone else, you'll get the results instantly. I wasn't able to test this claim, but it certainly sounds good.

I did test some of the direct search capabilities just to verify they were as good as I was led to believe. The job search function was useful and to-the-point. I searched for specific titles and the results came back complete with job location and a link to each listing. For example, I searched for "video encoder" and the site returned 118 hits from six different career sites. Other job keyword searches were just as prolific.

InfoGrid

(click to see larger image)

Searching for MP3s was fairly simple and the site performed well on tests.
I also tested the MP3 search option. To check its success rate, I pitted InfoGrid against Napster. I queried both for MP3s by obscure Freestyle artist Pebbles and a more common Beatles tune. Napster returned my maximum of 100 items for both Pebbles and Let It Be. InfoGrid unearthed 51 Pebbles songs and 68 versions of Let It Be. Unfortunately, InfoGrid doesn't give the bitrate of the songs as Napster does, but the results were still fairly impressive, especially since a search of Google brought back results that didn't quite match my request. Other search categories worked just as well.

My criticism of the site falls on its lack of editorial discrimination. For example, by clicking News, I was brought to a page with links to 124 news sites, but nowhere on the page could I find a link pointing me to the best news site. As an uninitiated Web user, how could I tell if the Geekboys site was as good as the CMP TechWeb site? I couldn't.

Despite the lack of omnipotent direction, I was impressed with the overall function and thoroughness of InfoGrid. I also liked the language translation link. Though I probably wouldn't hit this site first for my simple full-text queries, it's a fine site for research and a great place to start if you're looking to browse. I've actually found a portal with performance that lives up to its buzz.



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Win 2k Win 98 Win 95 Linux Win NT

InfoGrid

Bottom Line: A search engine that goes a step farther than other portals.
Price: Free

R. Lee Heath
847-729-7522


Related Links

R. Lee Heath

InfoGrid Page

Browsers/Web Access

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