Mac Search Software Filter: Is there an equivalent to Copernic? Help me find it!

January 20, 2007 12:06 PM

Mac Search Software Filter: Is there an equivalent to Copernic? Help me find it!

Hello folks,

Aside from Visio, the only software I really miss that isn't available for Mac is Copernic Agent. I just checked their site and they've stopped making anything for Mac. I'm specifically looking for a Mac equivalent to Copernic Agent's multiple subject specific search engines (what you see on the left under 'quick search' and 'category' in the screenshot here). Spotlight and Sherlock are ok for basic 'find files on my computer' searches, but I'm looking for something more Web research intensive.

So what do Mac folks do for advanced search? I use plenty of search engine plugins in Firefox, and even roll my own search using Rollyo, but would love a stand alone search engine application. There's got to be something out there besides the old ways of searching Google/del.icio.us/dogpile/Jack of All Widgets/piles of individual sites I can 'run' searches on etc. etc.. Anyone have experience with DEVONagent? Watson? any of these apps?

(and if anyone has good links to Mac software discussion and review sites, post 'em here - I'd love those as well. iusethis.com is good, but would love more.)

thank you, hive mind...

posted by rmm to Technology (9 answers total)

Watson is dead. Long live Watson.

You might want to try DevonAgent. It's a little weird, and I never really got INTO it. The Devon apps all seem to have their own way of thinking that just doesn't work well for me.

If you use Safari, check out Inquisitor, it gets a lot of love from Mac Alpha geeks. While I use it, I don't use its full potential.

I personally use Curio for a lot of things, and it has a quasi-similar "Sleuth" tool.
posted by mattly at 1:05 PM on January 20, 2007

The bundled Sherlock application is intended for this task, but development of plugins has all but ceased and many of the extant plugins no longer work due to linkrot.

Watson exists and used to be a good search tool, but that's about all I can say for it. If anything, it's even more abandoned than Sherlock: at least a handful of the Sherlock plugins work some of the time, whereas Watson pretty much doesn't work at all. It is not actively developed and the unmaintained client available now is largely unusable.

As a former Copernic user, I just don't use a client side search tool at all any more.
posted by majick at 1:06 PM on January 20, 2007

If you have an Intel-based Mac, have you considered using Copernic and Visio with Codeweavers CrossOver Mac or Darwine, or other virtualization options such as Vmware Fusion or Parallels Desktop?
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:10 PM on January 20, 2007

I like DevonAgent myself.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 1:12 PM on January 20, 2007

I'll add my name to the DevonAgent crowd. You need to devote some time "under the hood" to really use it well. It is less than intuitive. Also, Inquisitor is good, and just updated recently. But I have to suggest AcidSearch. It does the same thing that Inquisitor does, but is more user-friendly. It sits in your Safari search box.
http://mac.softpedia.com/get/Internet-Utilities/AcidSearch.shtml
or
http://www.pozytron.com/acidsearch
posted by davidinmanhattan at 3:30 PM on January 20, 2007

This is a bit off-topic, but you mentioned missing Visio. I find Omnigraffle to be a good replacement. And they have a Visio plug-in.
posted by Dag Maggot at 7:19 PM on January 20, 2007

DevonAgent.
posted by dobbs at 8:33 PM on January 20, 2007

Response by poster: Ok, so I'm thinking by the number of recommendations I will check out DevonAgent - I just downloaded a demo. Thanks folks - just good every once in a while to see what other people are doing regarding search. I do miss Copernic, though.

mattly, you're absolutely right regarding the Devon apps - I'm also trying out DevonNote as a personal wiki. It may take a little getting used to. Their apps are nice (as is their web site), but the learning curve to becoming an advanced user is a little tiring.

blazecock, will think about the 'booting PC on your Mac' idea, although if I had to do that every time I wanted to run a search I might go a little bonkers. But definitely I'll look into the idea

Dag, I do use Omnigraffle, and am pretty happy with it, but I was brought up on Visio first, and it was good for what I was doing, and I miss it.

thanks folks. Appreciated the help!
posted by rmm at 12:43 PM on January 21, 2007

Perhaps the free CQ-Web from q-phrase.com
posted by KimG at 4:28 AM on January 22, 2007