n Internet search tool introduced last week goes be
yond standard search engines by analyzing the Web pages it finds and giving users an index of key words and phrases.
Like other "metasearch" products, WebSleuth from Prompt Software Inc. in Novato, Calif., simultaneously queries multiple search engines such as Yahoo! and Alta Vista. It then scans the retrieved pages and builds an index. Rival tools such as Internet FastFind from Symantec Corp. in Cupertino, Calif., and WebCompass from Quarterdeck Corp. in Marina del Rey, Calif., generate only a list of Web links.
WebSleuth also distinguishes itself by letting users call up-in a viewer next to the index-any Web page listed in the index or a text-only abstract of a page.
The software indexes only HTML pages, but a corporate edition due in the third quarter will index multiple document types stored on network servers and users' PCs. It will include its own search engine.
Dave Howard, a partner at accounting firm Deloitte & Touche in San Jose, Calif., uses WebSleuth to perform broad searches on ta
x laws. The tool's analysis reduces time spent poring over irrelevant information, he says. WebSleuth lets users view pages in the index while the software is still analyzing results and indexing entries. But Howard says the viewer runs slowly on his 90-MHz Pentium system.
WebSleuth is available for $79.95 from Prompt Software's
Web site
.
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n Internet search tool introduced last week goes be
yond standard search engines by analyzing the Web pages it finds and giving users an index of key words and phrases.
