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It is sort of  'stone age' not to run a  ' web search engine' on a
browser. But that implies that you have a heavy duty server and lines
to handle all the traffic.  By having the user run the software
separately, you shift the burden to the user's site.

I took a quick look at Copernic. 1st, those ads.  You can get rid of
them if you buy the product. Can Copernic guarantee that all ads will
be suitable for a school if you use the free product?

2nd,  It's hard to refine or narrow a search. It does not allow
nesting of search strategies. Everything is linear and not intuitive
for an experienced searcher. Maybe the enhanced edition is more
sophisticated.

3rd,  in Refine, limiting a search to 'match the whole word' doesn't
work.  As a test search I tried to find information for Michele
Missner's query on historical western town populations.  I chose
Santa Fe as my target.  It would not limit the search to the word
'fe' in the 'refine' stage.  This is a serious drawback.

4th, There was no easy way to send feedback on the program. No email
address, no link to the website for a complaint form, no link to the
website for a 'praise' form. <grin>.

All in all, it's a good beginning. I may spring for the pay version.
But having more search engines available doesn't guarantee better
results. It just guarantees more hits.  I hope that the programmer
don't ignore the Mac users. It's a bad idea to cut off a third to a
half of your potential users and buyers.

Dan Robinson
Indexing Services
H.W. Wilson Company
Bronx, NY
drobinson@hwwilson.com

On 28 Jul 99 at 9:00, Adam Janowski, Library Media wrote:

> I decided to try out the Copernic software.  My initial reaction has
> been positive.  (I am on a network using I-share to access a Media One
> cable modem).  What I like is that Copernic keeps a record of your
> searches so that you can use different terms and see how your results
> differ with each search.  I didn't understand the "stone age" comment by
> Dan.  The software install went very smoothly.  I'll be interested to
> hear if others have used Copernic.  Let's not "blast" until we see what
> others think.  Adam
> --
> Adam Janowski, Library Media Specialist
> Naples High School Library Media Center, Naples, Florida
> Email: nhslmc@mediaone.net  Website: www.se.mediaone.net/~nhslmc
>

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