REVIEW: Copernic Agent BASIC

Do you search the Internet for genealogical information?

Wanna good deal on a Search Engine Agent?

Need to search Newsgroups and BBS as well as websites?

Wanna save time searching?

Wanna reach into the Invisible Web, too?

Wanna get it really cheap?

This is a review of 

Copernic Agent BASIC

(with a mention or two of the commercial versions)

• Price:  FREE
• Last Update:  2006
• Help File:  5
• Website Groups:  4
• Ease of Learning:  3
• Ease of Use:  5
• Search Criteria:  5
• Flexibility:  5
• Speed:  4
• Results:  5
• Interoperability:  5

Bottom line:

• This one is free.
• No time limit.
• It is professionally done and feature-laden.

Let's examine the following topics:

• Copernic Won the Best Meta Search Engine Award for 2002
• About Copernic
• System Requirements
• Feature List

The Internet contains just about any information you need, but how do you find it?   Enter Copernic Agent, a Web-searching tool allowing for better Web coverage by searching multiple search engines simultaneously and intelligently indexing the results.  I put the Basic version through several tests and found that even with some disabled features this tool begins where Web-based search engines end.  Most importantly, Copernic doesn't leave you with thousands of search results, but provides handy options, such as filtering, summarizing, dead-link removal, grouping, and numerical value scoring, to assist in finding more relevant results.

Copernic definitely has some handy features that are perfect for quick and general searches.  Overall, it's hard to beat a few carefully chosen keywords on search engines such as Google, but Copernic’s search capabilities impressed me a lot.  After a few days of intensive use, I became more comfortable and accustomed to its extensive interface and feature set.

 Copernic Won the Best Meta Search Engine Award for 2002

Copernic was awarded the distinguished “2002 Search Engine Watch” for Copernic Agent software in the Best Meta Search Engine category.  Now before you complain that search engines don't wear watches, read on . . .

Copernic Agent is an outstanding tool with advanced features such as the following:

1. Search result sorting
2. Search filtering
3. Search history creation and re-use

Copernic Agent is available in three versions, (Basic [the Free One], Personal and Professional) and allows you to retrieve pertinent information quickly for immediate use, thereby saving time and money.

About Copernic

Copernic ( www.Copernic.com ) develops advanced information management software to empower professionals and maximize their information assets to become more efficient and proactive in their environments.  Copernic's products enable professionals to become more competitive in a constantly changing information world.

Copernic Agent finds what you are looking for by jointly querying targeted search engines and information sources on the Web.  With Copernic Agent, your searches can be easier, faster and more efficient than ever.  This state-of-the-art search agent implements categories to target appropriate search engines.  It can do the following:

1. eliminate duplicate results,
2. verifiy and remove broken links,
3. highlight keywords in result lists and Web pages,
4. save pages for offline browsing, and
5. find keywords in results or Web pages with Boolean queries.

A quick search bar and the integrated Favorites menu can save you time—lots of it.

Copernic Agent keeps a detailed search history with custom folders and subfolders so that you may view and manage results at your convenience and update searches later to find new results effortlessly.  This software allows you to customize menus, toolbars, search lists, search operations and options.  It also features automatic software and engine updating, and allows you to access technical support on the Copernic Web site and send suggestions to improve the product.  Copernic Agent can extend Windows and software functionality, especially for Internet Explorer, which integrates many new browsing tools.  One useful extension in the browser is a multifunction toolbar that allows you to trace keywords in Web pages using a highlighting function and scrolling buttons, and create new searches.  The free Copernic Agent Basic features 9 predefined search categories, providing access to some 80 major information sources.  (You'll want to remove the so-called "Adult" category.)

The commercial versions, Copernic Agent Personal and Copernic Agent Professional, offer some 125 categories, giving you access to more than 1200 search engines.  In addition to the free version features, they have keyword spell-checking and enable you to filter results and group them in various ways.  They also allow you to create custom and favourite search categories and add available categories.  Moreover, Copernic Agent Personal can automate removing of broken links while Copernic Agent Professional can perform various other automated tasks such as downloading pages and refining results.  Copernic Agent Professional can also abstract key concepts from Web pages, detect duplicate pages with non-identical addresses and summarize Web page text contents for found results.  Also, it has a powerful tracking function to automatically track page changes and update specific searches, including e-mail tracking reports.

System Requirements

• Operating System: Windows 95/98/Me/NT4/2000/XP with Internet Explorer 4.0 SP1 (or later)
• Browser: Internet Explorer 4.0, Netscape Navigator/Communicator 4.x or 6.x, Opera, the system default browser or another compatible browser
• CPU: Pentium 120 MHz or higher
• RAM: 32 MB (minimum)
• Hard Disk: At least 15 MB of free disk space

Feature List

Searches

• Search engines and information sources grouped under categories corresponding to their specialization.
• Search categories grouped in domains of interest to simplify selection.
• Able to contact up to 32 information sources or links simultaneously in order to search results, extract data from Web pages and download pages.
• Free version with no expiration date, Copernic Agent Basic, gives access to more than 90 information sources within 10 search categories: The Web (plus one of the 14 language or country-based categories), Newsgroups, and E-mail Addresses.
• A quick search bar to make search creation easier in many situations.
• Detects duplicate pages with non-identical Web addresses.
• Can save found Web pages for offline browsing and searching.
• Keeps a detailed and unlimited search history for search follow-ups and other uses.
• Can create folders and subfolders for the searches.
• Can update searches to find new results (new results highlighted).
• Can refine search parameters to obtain more accurate results.
• Can duplicate a search with all its parameters and results to create a similar search quickly.  The only thing you might change is the surname or location, for example.
• Can copy and move searches from one folder to the other.

Results

• Found results are scored and displayed according to their relevancy.
• Automatic consolidation of results with identical links.  (Removal of duplicates.)
• A detailed result list for each search with extensive information such as result titles, excerpts, relevancy scores, Web page links and languages, dates, search engines and key concepts.
• Result lists including visual features such as icons, underlining, bold fonts and colors.
• Highlighting of keywords in result lists and Web pages opened with Internet Explorer (single-color or multicolor).
• A page preview pane to determine the relevancy of results before browsing through them.  Loaded pages are saved in the Internet Explorer 5.x (or later) memory cache to save browsing time.
• A filter bar with advanced features to filter result lists (features differ depending on the installed version).
• A toolbar with multiple, advanced features to find words in result lists or Web pages.
• Support of various file formats when analyzing Web pages and documents and finding words in their contents (e.g., text files, MS Word documents, PDF files, PowerPoint presentations, and Excel worksheets).
• Sorting searches in many fields (e.g., keywords, update dates, matches, or categories).
• Sorting any result list by many fields (e.g., titles, excerpts, addresses, scores, dates found, dates visited, dates modified or search engines).
• An integrated Internet Explorer Favourites menu, mainly to facilitate addition of favorites from a result list.
• Delete unwanted results.
• Consult Web pages during a search operation.
• E-mail search results in HTML or text format.
• Export search results in various file types: HTML, Word (.doc), Text (.txt), XML, Comma Separated (.csv).
• Place a Copernic Agent shortcut on the Windows desktop or the Quick Launch toolbar.
• Availability of a Copernic Agent search extension in the Windows Start menu through the Search command.

Software Integration

• Possibility of configuring Internet Explorer 4x (or later), Netscape Navigator/Communicator 4.x or 6.x or Opera browser, the system default browser or another compatible browser as the Copernic Agent default browser.
• Display a result list in an HTML result page via the default browser, if desired.

Be careful of copyright infringement here, however, before posting on a webpage.

Internet Explorer Integration

• Trace keywords in Web pages using a highlighting function and tracing buttons, create new searches, and set page change tracking.  (IE 5.0 or later required).
• Ability to replace the Internet Explorer search bar with the Copernic Agent Search component, so you can use the Copernic Agent when the Search button of the Internet Explorer toolbar is clicked.
• Launch the Copernic Agent Search component for a selected word or phrase directly from any Web page displayed in Internet Explorer using the Search button or a command added to the right-click menu.
• Can add a button on the Internet Explorer toolbar and command to the Internet Explorer Tools menu to launch Copernic Agent (IE 5.0 or later required)
• Availability of a Copernic Agent result bar with advanced browsing features that may be displayed via Copernic Agent or the browser.
• Availability of a HTML search history page to make selection of result lists easier among existing searches.

Customizing & Configuration

• Customize the number of simultaneous transfers (up to 32) for searching, verifying, analyzing, extracting and downloading operations.
• Personalized toolbars and menus for adding, removing and rearranging buttons and items, creating custom toolbars and using many other related options.
• Disable or enable default engines by category.
• Search category manager to customize categories.
• Customize default maximum numbers of results to report by engine and search for each category and any search
  (Basic: 300/3000; Personal: 500/5000; Professional: 700/unlimited).
• Support of all Internet connection modes, including HTTP or Socks proxy servers
  (imports configuration from browser, manages the authorization procedure for proxies).
• Change multiple configuration settings (e.g., visual settings, summaries, e-mail reports, prompts, timeouts).
• Customize the default browser and Internet Explorer, Windows or software integrations.
• Customizable toolbar locations in the main window, Internet Explorer and other integrated applications.
• Customizable search and result layouts.
• Automatic engine and software updates with customizable options.
• Customize text size of the software Help file with the corresponding command featured in Internet Explorer.

Compatibility

• Supports multi-user configurations for individual searches and settings.
• Windows compliant software uninstall procedure included.
• Access the program from Windows Start/Find menu.

Other Specifications

• Dynamic menu to allow quick and contextual access commonly used tasks.
• HTML Help file including fully contextual Help Contents with menus and windows.
• Help menu commands to access technical support from the Copernic Web site, report a problem or suggest a new feature directly.  This insures the latest help available.
• Technical support available from Copernic website.

In a conversation with my Sis, DarlaJo, she said "sounds like the perfect tool for those who want to find their family tree on the net!"
I replied, "Aye.  And those who want a set of fresh leads to take to repositories."

All right, if you've not started your download now, I thank you for your attention.  If you have, I'm sure Copernic thanks you and hopes that you will upgrade soon.  You have many fun adventures ahead.