office

How to find files in the search engine. Software and services for professional search

Most of the time spent by the user on the Internet is spent searching for information of interest to him. At the same time, there are many ways to get this data - you can look into the online encyclopedia and try to find the answer there, you can subscribe to a newsletter on a topic of interest and carefully study the incoming correspondence, or you can consult competent people on the forum by asking them a question. But the most universal way find something on the Internet - use one of the many search engines. Services for searching on millions and millions of websites - this is perhaps the fundamental link world wide web. Without Google, Yahoo, Yandex and many other search engines familiar today, a user's stay on the Web would rather resemble walking a blind man through the forest. The importance of search engines for working on the Internet can hardly be overestimated - for many users, as start pages addresses of search engines are indicated, and it is from them that for many an endless journey through various network resources begins. However, the effectiveness of Internet excavations is different for everyone - one person finds information instantly, another takes a very long time, and a third may not find anything useful at all. What is the reason? The answer is simple: searching the Internet is like fishing - you need to know where to fish and what to fish with, i.e. where to look and how to look. In today's article, we'll talk about the best way to search the Internet, and tell you what search engines exist for this, other than those that are "on everyone's lips."

However, we will start with those systems that you know. If the user knows the address of the search engine, this does not mean that he knows how to use it. Let's check how well you understand the technology of search queries. How accurate the results you get, first of all, depends on how skillfully you formed the search query. For example, if you are looking for information to write a term paper, you do not need to enter its topic verbatim, especially if the work has a narrow specialization. You will find much more valuable information if you try to pick up keywords, that is, those words that will definitely occur in your work. If you are looking for a lost manual for a car radio, then entering the model number, you will surely get a huge number of sites offering to purchase it. To weed out unnecessary links, you can use the search function in the found or exclude some words from the search. In almost every search engine you will find an advanced search feature. This is another one good way weed out unwanted results. Among these functions, it can be useful to search for pages that have been recently updated, search for pages only in a certain language, or on sites located in the domain zone you specify. The time spent on searching can be significantly saved if you know and use the syntax of the query language. Each search engine has its own characteristics here. For example, when you are looking for something on Yandex, it will not be superfluous to use the following tricks:

To search for words that should appear on the page in one sentence, put an & symbol between them
To exclude a specific word from search results, add it to your query by prefixing it with ~~
To find pages that contain at least one of the words in your search query, separate them with |
To search for a word in the specified form, precede it with an exclamation mark.

The Google search engine also has its own secrets. Here are just a few of them:

To search for information on a specific site (and only on it), enter its address in the query field, prefixed with the word site and a colon (for example, site:http://www.site)
To search for a phrase that should appear on the page in full, put it in quotation marks
To exclude pages that contain a specific word from search results, add it to your query by prefixing it with a minus sign

These are just a few touches that can help make your web search more efficient. If you want to achieve the best result, we advise you to become more familiar with the syntax of the query language, which is described in detail in help system your favorite search engine. There is no doubt that Google and Yandex are indispensable tools for searching the web - search in these systems is convenient, flexible and very accurate. But, nevertheless, this does not mean that alternative search engines do not have the right to exist. Yes - they index fewer pages, yes - their resource selection methods are largely debatable. But such search engines have one indisputable advantage - they offer something new, different from the accepted standards. Since alternative search engines use a different approach to selecting resources that match the query, the search result will be completely different than in the case of conventional search engines. So, if a long search for well-known services did not lead to anything, this means one thing - you need to change tactics and try other methods of finding information using alternative search engines. Often, alternative search engines use one or more lists with resources found by Google, Yahoo, and other major systems to collect results. These results are filtered, the best ones are selected and often visualized for better perception using a diagram, sitemap, tag cloud, etc. Developers of alternative search engines sometimes go so far in their search for a new universal interface that it is sometimes difficult to recognize a search engine in a web page. And yet, these are search engines. Unusual and strange at first sight...

FindSounds.com - looking for sounds

This resource is intended for those users who are in a creative search. The resource allows you to search for sound files of different formats - wav, mp3, aiff, au. The database of the resource contains a wide variety of sounds - the screams of animals, the rattle of cars, the ringing, knocking, sirens, the buzzing of insects, the roar of explosions and shooting, splashing water, etc. Sound files can be searched according to various criteria, such as size, presence of two or one sound channels (stereo/mono), sampling frequency and sound bit depth. In the search results, the resource shows not only links to the found files, but also their main characteristics, and also shows a graph of the sound amplitude, which can be used to judge the nature of the sound of a given sample.

The FindSounds sound effects database can be used in a variety of areas - from the development of computer games and other applications to the creation of presentations and all kinds of clips. The search engine can be useful, for example, for those who create interactive web graphics and want to add variety to the site by accompanying clicking the page navigation elements with various sounds.

Gnod.net - select music, books and movies to your liking

When a person has a desire to read a new book, listen to some new music or watch a movie, he usually seeks advice from his friend or acquaintance, who in his eyes has authority. However, to find someone who would agree to express his opinion on this issue, not so easy. Firstly, not everyone likes to give advice, because when recommending something to another, a person takes on a share of responsibility, and many are stopped by the question "What if the film that I recommend doesn't like it?" Secondly, the person who gives advice must understand what exactly the interlocutor will like, and what will be completely uninteresting. After all, the taste and color, as they say ... But there is an easier way to get good advice- use a special search engine, which is made specifically for this purpose. So, you want to listen to a new band, but don't have the time or desire to look for good music. The gnod.net resource will ask you for several names of musical artists that you like, analyze the results and offer your own version of a singer or group that you should also like. The service has several databases - on musical performers, on films, books and people. Thus, the resource has absorbed four services: Gnod Music, Gnod Books, Gnod Movies and Flork. The latest service, Flork, is a social experiment to discover people who are interested in talking to each other. We were happy to test the music section of this service and introduced three artists - Gerry and the Pacemakers, The Beatles and Hollies. Our selection was not random - these three bands belong to the era of the sixties, to an interesting phenomenon that is called the British Invasion (British Invasion). All of these bands were playing a beat, and the search engine had to suggest a band or artist in the same style. And so it happened. The result offered to us is the group Archies, which in the late sixties was on the lips of all Americans with their cheerful song Sugar Sugar. After playing with the search engine for a while, we came to the conclusion that gnod.net often gives the right advice, and is wrong very often. For clarity, the search engine can provide the results of its "advice" in the form of an animated cloud with the names of groups, authors or films. The database can be replenished independently by conducting "conversations" with the search engine and answering his questions in the style of "I like this" or "I don't like this."

Alldll.net - find library files

We recommend that you immediately bookmark this search engine, as sooner or later it will definitely come in handy. Probably, everyone has at least once encountered the problem of the absence of some kind of dll library in the system. This usually results in programs or games refusing to run, and the message "Couldn" t find *****.dll "appears on the screen. There can be many reasons for this, for example, the missing file may be caused by incorrect deletion earlier installed application, accidental file corruption, etc. In addition, the developer could simply not include this library in the distribution of his product.

Correcting the situation is very simple - just find it on the Internet missing file, download it and copy it to the directory of the program that refuses to start, or to the folder..WINDOWSsystem32... You can easily and quickly find and download the missing file using this service. The www.alldll.net resource is a searchable database of the most popular dll libraries. The files are sorted alphabetically, there is a search function. You can search for the file you are looking for even if you only know the approximate name of the library. It is enough to start typing text in the request field, and at the bottom of the page a huge list of files will appear that begin with the letters that were typed.

Medpoisk.ru - search for medical information

Despite the fact that this search engine uses a search engine from Google, this in no way reduces its value. Medpoisk.ru is a universal search engine that is designed to search exclusively on medical sites. This site is an excellent tool for every physician and anyone who wants to get an answer to any question from the field of medicine. How to treat this or that disease, what are the contraindications of this or that medicine, which doctor to contact - all this and much more can be found out by "ask" the search engine. The search engine includes a labor exchange and can be used to search for jobs among medical professionals. The resource also contains a catalog of medical institutions sorted by region. Among these institutions are the addresses of clinics, medical centers of various directions, maternity hospitals, diagnostic centers, beauty salons, etc. We sincerely wish you to use this search service solely out of curiosity, and not out of necessity.

Taggalaxy.de - search for pictures and photos

You may have heard of the popular image sharing service Flickr.com? This is the same service that was blocked by the Chinese authorities in 2007 after photos of the sad events of 1989 on Tiananmen Square, located in the Chinese capital Beijing, appeared on its pages. Flickr.com is one of the first Web 2.0 services, and the number of images uploaded by its users is in the billions. The number of images uploaded to the servers of this service is so large that in order to find a particular image in this ocean of images and paintings, a separate search engine is needed. The service offers an image search service, but there are more interesting way search pictures - using unusual search engine taggalaxy.de. This search service is a tool for searching images on Flickr.com, with a preview. And what makes it unusual is the search interface, which is completely made three-dimensional. The process of searching for a keyword resembles some kind of computer game - different celestial bodies fly in outer space, between which you can move in the virtual world.

After a keyword query is completed, a system of the sun and planets that revolve around the star will appear on the screen. Each celestial body has its own purpose and is "signed" by a word. In the center of the galaxy is the sun, the key request, all other bodies are auxiliary words, clarifications. If you click on the sun, this object will approach, and from all sides the photos will flock to it and surround it, the content of which is determined by the search query. This 3D model with photographs can be rotated in virtual space, viewing in detail and searching for the image of interest. After that, it is enough to click on the picture so that it increases in size, and then it can be better viewed and read the description.

In the process of working with this search engine, you can use the scrolling function - it allows you to zoom in or out on three-dimensional planets. The rest of the planets that are visible in the search engine interface after the request are auxiliary words that allow you to refine the request. For example, if you enter "Sky" in the search field, then among the qualifying planetary words there will be the words "clouds", "sunset", "blue" and other similar tags that users indicated when using the Flickr.com service. The disadvantage of the search engine is that taggalaxy.de does not support the Russian language, so queries can only be entered in Latin.

Nigma.ru - filters the results of other search engines

Among all the search engines that can be found on the Internet, there is a special group of search engines. It differs from all the others in that they have a multi-search function, that is, simultaneous search in several search engines. One of such multisearch systems is the Russian service Nigma.ru.

Nigma contains its own database of resources, but in addition, it allows you to search immediately on all the most popular search engines, including Google, MSN, Yandex, Rambler, AltaVista, Yahoo and Aport. The mechanism for selecting results in this search engine is different from most accepted site discovery methods. The fact is that the engine of this service uses clustering of results. What does this mean? Imagine that you decide for yourself to find out what "rendering" is. Comparing the results in different search engines, the Nigma.ru engine selected the most probable results and, at the same time, in the left part of the window, next to the list of search results, displayed the so-called clusters - "visualization", "creation", "system", "rendering", "process", "studio max", " computer graphics" and other words and phrases. These clusters represent a thematic group of documents found. Thus, you can quickly narrow your search or specify your search query. In Nigma.ru, you can also use headings to limit the area from which results will be selected - for example, perform searches only taking into account musical resources or display results only for images.Another feature of this service may be of interest to schoolchildren and students.Nigma.ru offers services Nigma-mathematics and Nigma-chemistry.The first is designed to quickly solve simple equations and various arithmetic operations, the second allows you to work with the formulas of chemical reactions. The search service recognizes more than a thousand physical, mathematical constants and units of measurement, allowing you to quickly convert from one dimension to another.

Searchme.com - search engine with preview

Everyone knows that in order to find specific information on the web, you need to spend a lot of time. When browsing search results, the user basically opens resources at random, not knowing for sure whether he will find what he is interested in on a new page, or whether it will be a waste of time. The creators of the searchme.com search service thought about this problem and came up with an original solution. The essence of this decision was to create such a search engine in which the user could look at a rough thumbnail of the page before it loaded. This would allow to form an additional opinion about the seriousness of the resource and its content.

The implementation of this idea was just great - the created search engine has a beautiful animated three-dimensional interface and shows search results in the form of an animated thumbnail ribbon, thumbnail screenshots of web pages that include the search keyword. The result tape, like a film of old negatives, can be scrolled in the browser window using a special slider located under the image row. Sketches are instantly loaded, so there are no "brakes" with drawing the results. It is especially convenient to work with search results in full-screen mode - then it is quite possible to make out even the text of articles on the thumbnails of the results. To appreciate the convenience of this system, just try to view news resources. Photos for the main news on the front page of the web-edition will immediately make it clear which news on this resource is considered the most important.

Exit - a specialized torrent search engine. There are a lot of sites that are searched for by torrent resources on the network. However, torrent-finder.com has an undeniable advantage over other search engines - this service allows you to search for files on a huge number of trackers at the same time.

Astronet.ru - astronomical search service

This resource provides a search for information on sites whose topics, one way or another, are related to astronomy. In total, the database of the search engine contains about four hundred sites on astronomical topics - sites of observatories, amateur pages, libraries of scientific literature, etc.

One can only envy those whose profession is connected with astronomy - there is a share of romance in the study of cosmic events. Nothing seems so interesting to a person as the area of the unknown. Maybe that's why he so often turns his attention to the cosmos and tries to find the answer to the eternal question "Is there life in the Universe?" We also did not differ in originality and tried to ask the search engine the legendary question "Is there life on Mars?" There were so many answers, and all of them were so interesting that, forgetting about everything, we plunged into reading hypotheses and looking at photographs and models of the Martian surface. In addition to the search function, the site has a lot of other useful services, among which, for example, there is an English-Russian-English Astronomical Dictionary, a biographical guide with detailed information about all scientists who have contributed to the development of astronomy, a glossary of astronomical terms. There is also a handy star map that generates the position of the constellations, depending on the latitude and longitude of the observation point, as well as the time of day.

Friv.com - free games for every taste!

Everyone needs search services - both those who use them to write a dissertation, and those who want to know the weather forecast or train schedules, and even those who carve out five minutes of free time and just want to, as they say, fool around, play some some simple computer game. For last category users, this resource will be a real storehouse of games.

This is not exactly a search engine, although that is what Western observers call it (Game search engine). The site friv.com is more of a catalogue, a collection of 264 Flash games gathered on one page. Click any of the colorful icons and play for your health. On friv.com you will find any kind of "office fun" - from tetris and chess to an adventure quest and a shooter. The plot of many games is made with great humor and, of course, not only you, but also your friends will like it.

VisualWorld.ru - search with associative links

The method of selecting the correct results for each search engine is unique. For example, this search engine works on the principle of associativity. This search engine tries not only to correctly select web resources that match a specific query, but also to suggest the direction of the search with associative words. So, if you enter a keyword or phrase in the query field, the result shown by the search engine will look like a set of associative words, a semantic cloud, and, of course, the usual list of sites selected by the search engine as a result of the search.

A distinctive feature of VisualWorld.ru is the visualization of associative links, i.e. drawing up a map-diagram showing connections between words that relate to similar topics. This graph at first may seem like something incomprehensible and unusual, but after several search attempts you get used to it and use it to narrow the search area. The VisualWorld.ru search service can work not only in the associative search mode, but also in the usual one. For faster work with the system, there is a "light" version of the site - viwo.ru.

Briefly.ru - a summary of any book

One can argue for a long time about whether the book will die or not, but the fact remains - today's reader is not the one who leafs through the volume of Lermontov or Tolstoy, but rather the one who still knows how to read. Soon everyone who knows that Bender is a figment of the imagination of Ilf and Petrov, and not the hero of "Futurama", and Homer is not a character of "The Simpsons" at all, but a quite adequate Greek who lived a couple of thousand years ago will be able to consider himself a bibliophile. We think that the lost interest in literature is a temporary phenomenon, and there will come a time when people will return to books. In the meantime, time dictates its own laws, and such resources as briefly.ru appear. You don't need to be particularly far-sighted to guess who this resource is intended for - of course, for schoolchildren and students. Why read a whole book if you can find out in a nutshell what old Maeterlinck wrote about there. The site briefly.ru collected a large number of summaries of various books - from Dante Alighieri's "Divine Comedy" to Shakespeare's "Hamlet" and Sholokhov's "Quiet Flows the Don". The content of the works is sorted on the site by authors, there is a search function. We must pay tribute to the creators of this resource - they very carefully approached the selection of text for retelling, so most of the works are retold in literary language, everything is clear and ... interesting. Well, perhaps among those who become familiar with the contents of these books, there is also someone who wants to know the book by reading it in the original. And not from the screen of a PDA or laptop, but from the white sheets of an ordinary book, while there is still such an opportunity.

Videoinet.ru - video search

This service searches for videos in various online video repositories, both domestic, such as RuTube.ru, and foreign ones. Everyone knows that the largest video archive is a service YouTube. However, in practice, it turns out that our domestic video storage services are not much inferior, and in some ways even better than the service owned by Google. Firstly, domestic services are more democratic in terms of uploaded video - fortunately, in our country, no one has yet thought of suing for the fact that a music video or a fragment of a new blockbuster has been posted on the network for public viewing. Secondly, the content of the clips that our users upload to the server is closer and more understandable to us. Here, for example, is a report from one of the TV channels, which has already become a documentary, about the events that preceded the arrival of Sir Paul McCartney in Ukraine - it turns out that there is a village of Bitlya in Transcarpathia, where local Hutsuls are preparing a "garne pisnya" for one of the Beatles. And here is another video where a drunk teacher from one of the capital's universities is trying to give a lecture. The chance to see something like this on YouTube is much lower - this is what is close to our viewer, this is our mentality.

Search on the videoinet.ru service can be performed by tags, by rating and keywords that are related to the content of the clip. The service allows you to bookmark and make playlists from video clips.

Kartoo.com - search with results map

In a situation where a long search on the Internet did not bring any positive result, it is logical to assume that the search query was not made very well and it should be formulated somehow differently. But the longer the user goes through the pages, the more difficult it is for him to use his imagination and think of another way to describe his problem in one or two words. In this case, you just need to switch and try some completely different search service, such as kartoo.com.

The mere presence of an unusual search resource interface can push the user to the idea of formulating his query in a new way. And given that the results will not be the same as the previous search engine, we can assume that the chances of finding an answer in this case will be higher. The search service is completely different from conventional search engines - its appearance more like an application window. After entering the query word, an animated character appears in the application window to entertain the user while the results are being prepared for display. This is followed by the construction of a map of the Internet, which determines the links between the semantic content of various resources. This map clearly shows which area is closest to the subject of the selected resource and where to look for information. Interestingly, the links shown on the map can be edited, thereby defining the search area. On the map of Internet resources, sites are marked with different icons - those that have a larger icon are more likely to match the search query. Using the kartoo.com search engine is very unusual, especially at the beginning. But, nevertheless, you get used to some search features instantly - for example, very convenient site icons that make it possible to judge whether you have viewed this page or not. The search engine also keeps a history of queries, which is very convenient if you need to return to some result. To do this, you can view the list of words requested in the search engine, and remember which one led to a particular resource. The search engine, unfortunately, does not work well with Russian text. The search can be performed in one of three modes - all over the Internet, only English-language pages and using the "parent" filter. When the search engine finds a lot of pages that match the query, the search results are divided into pages (as in any search engine) and for each of them its own map of the Internet is created. Any scorecard can be saved and then reused for searches.

Webbrain.com - specification of the search area

Visual presentation of search results is a common occurrence among alternative search engines. The closest and most understandable way to demonstrate the search area is a diagram, which, one way or another, is played with in unusual interfaces by the creators of alternative search engines. The webbrain.com service is an attempt to make a search engine in which the user could not only sort through the results in a row, but also choose the direction of the search. The search service works very simply. The user enters a query, after which a word diagram is built at the top of the page that defines the semantic scope of the search, and a standard list of sites that meet the query requirement is displayed at the bottom of the browser window. In the center of the diagram is the keyword that most closely matches the topic of the query. Sometimes you can judge by the central word how "correctly" the search engine has identified the meaning of the query. news" or "computer". The inaccuracy of the results of this search engine is explained by the meager base of indexed sites, but the idea itself is interesting and, perhaps, will someday be continued. In order to be able to work with webbrain.com, you must have the Java Virtual Machine component installed, Internet Explorer, Firefox or Netscape.

Agakids.ru - children's search engine

When a child seeks to learn a computer, this should be encouraged in every possible way. But you shouldn't let him search for answers to his questions on Google or a similar "adult" search engine. After all, even if the search engine has the function of limiting search results based on inappropriate content, this only means that with the filter turned on, pornography and violence will not disappear completely, but will occur less often on the result pages. No search service can guarantee a completely "clean" list of results. Parental control programs do not completely solve this problem.

But there is one very good way out - to invite the child to work with a special children's search engine agakids.ru. This service is designed in such a way that it searches only for those resources that have been added to the agakids.ru database and have been approved by the creators of the service. The search engine can find useful information and for parents - he will tell you how to properly raise children, how to take care of their health, etc. The site also has an Internet radio for children, which broadcasts various fairy tales, children's songs, stories and much more. To make it interesting for a child to use this search engine, work with the results can take place in the visual search mode, when the pages found are shown as a beautiful animated series of screenshots. home page sites. Adults will probably find it more convenient to work in text mode.

Eyeplorer.com - online encyclopedia search

When creating this unusual search engine, the creators sought to make it as "smart" as possible, able to fine-tune the search query. Having decided that there is no more universal database than that contained in encyclopedic articles, the creators of the service came to the conclusion that a new search engine should be created on the basis of Wikipedia, a popular online encyclopedia. Created by German programmers, eyeplorer.com visualizes search results and allows you to refine your search. Eyeplorer.com is a very handy tool to quickly find brief information in a certain area. The search engine looks like a pie chart. In the center of this diagram is a search box. After the query is executed, the search results are marked with dots on this diagram, and these results look like link tags that help the user to understand the essence of the issue. The links in this diagram lead to the pages of the online encyclopedia. For greater convenience, the chart scale can be changed using a special slider. Any tag moved into the query field automatically starts a new search and the chart rebuilds the result map. The search query can be refined by adding additional words that clarify the essence of the question. To the right of this diagram, there is a notepad where you can drag and drop comments-links to the diagram tags, a kind of online bookmark.

Picollator.ru - search by image content

When you enter a query on most of the popular image search engines, you get results based on what text appears on the page as well as filenames. But the lesser known Picollator search engine works in a completely different way. This system identifies what is shown in the pictures. Naturally, with this approach, the search query should not be formulated as a word or phrase, but as a picture.

That's exactly what it is: upload a photo to the server or provide a link to a site where it has already been uploaded, and after a few seconds you will see thumbnails of images similar to the uploaded photo. The service has some limitations: it only works with photos of people. In addition, to get an acceptable result, the original photo must be good quality- the person's face on it should be clearly visible, it is also desirable that it not be turned.

Kwmap.net - suggest search directions

The slogan of this site under the search form "Keymap of the whole Internet" fully corresponds to the essence of this search engine. The kwmap.net service visualizes the found results in the simplest and most visual way that you can think of - in the form of a road map, somewhat reminiscent of a subway map. The hotspots of this map are the keywords found by the search engine. The point at the intersection of paths is the central word, the one that was entered in the search engine query field.

The search engine is partly doing the work of the user - in case of an unsatisfactory result, you can not puzzle over which question to ask more precisely - just look at the visual representation of the search results and select one of keywords. In other words, using these key expressions, you can control the direction of the search.

Conclusion

This list of "strange" search services, of course, does not end there. The best minds are trying to develop more and more perfect algorithm for selecting search results on the Internet. But, despite their best efforts, no such solution has yet been proposed that could arouse great interest among users. This can be explained not only by the force of habit, but also by the fact that over the years of existence of Google, Yandex, Yahoo! and other search engines, many users have learned to "filter" the results, skillfully operating with the syntax search query, no worse than alternative search engines do. We believe that the situation can change radically only when a search service appears on the horizon that does not use the engine of older systems, but its own, and which at the same time can index the same huge number of pages as Google. Arguing over which search engine is the best is definitely doomed to an endless debate. Surely there are many people who will argue that a person has not come up with anything better than Google or Yandex. There will be those who will say that alternative search engines are looking more precisely. Both of them are right. After all, browser bookmarks have room for all the search engines that might come in handy.

Sometimes it happens that you want to download a free music album from 2007 released by an artist who knows three and a half people. You find a torrent file, launch it, the download reaches 14.7% and ... that's it. Days and weeks pass, and the download stands still. You start looking for the album on Google, scouring the forums and finally finding links to some file hosting sites, but they have not been working for a long time.

This happens more and more often - copyright holders constantly close useful resources. And if popular content is still not a problem to find, finding a seven-year-old TV series in Spanish can be extremely difficult.

Whatever you need on the Internet, there are a number of ways to find it. We offer all of the following options solely for familiarization with the content, but in no case for theft.

usenet

Usenet is a distributed network of servers between which data is synchronized. The structure of Usenet resembles a hybrid of a forum and Email. Users can connect to special groups (Newsgroups), read or write something in them. As with mail, messages have a subject that helps define the subject of the group. Today Usenet is mostly used for file sharing.

Until 2008, the major Usenet providers kept files for only 100-150 days, but then the files began to be stored forever. Smaller providers leave content for 1,000 days or more, which is often enough.

Around mid-2001, copyright holders began to take notice of Usenet, forcing providers to remove copyrighted content. But enthusiasts quickly found a workaround: they began to give files confusing names, protect archives with passwords, and add them to special sites that can be accessed only by invitation.

In Russia, almost no one knows about the existence of Usenet, which cannot be said about countries where the authorities are diligently fighting piracy. Unlike the BitTorrent protocol, on Usenet it is impossible to determine the user's IP address without the help of a service provider or Internet service provider.

How to connect to Usenet

In most cases, you will not be able to connect for free. You will have to be content with either a small file storage time, or low speed, or access only to text groups.

Providers offer two types of paid access: a monthly subscription with an unlimited amount of downloaded data or time-limited tariffs with limited traffic. The second option is for those who only occasionally need to download something. The largest providers of such services are Altopia, Giganews, Eweka, NewsHosting, Astraweb.

Now you need to figure out where to get NZB files with meta information - something like torrent files. For this, special search engines - indexers are used.

Indexers

Public indexers are full of spam and , but they're still good for finding files that were uploaded five or more years ago. Here are some of them:

Free indexers that require registration are more suitable for finding new files. They are well structured, the content has not only titles, but also descriptions with pictures. You can try the following:

There are also indexers only for certain types of content. For example, anizb is for anime fans, while albumsindex is for those looking for music.

Downloading from Usenet

Take Fraser Park (The FP) as an example, an obscure 2011 film that is nearly impossible to find in 1080p. You need to find the NZB file and run it through a program like NZBGet or SABnzbd .

How to download via IRC

You will need an IRC client. Almost anyone will do - the vast majority support DCC. Connect to the server you are interested in and start downloading.

The largest servers with books:

irc.undernet.org, room #bookz;
irc.irchighway.net, #ebooks room.

Movies:

irc.abjects.net, room #moviegods;
irc.abjects.net, room #beast-xdcc.

Western and Japanese animation:

irc.rizon.net, room #news;
irc.xertion.org, room #cartoon-world.

You can use the !find or @find commands to find files. The bot will send the results as a private message. If possible, prefer the @search command - it runs a special bot that provides search results in a single file, rather than a huge stream of text.

Let's try downloading How Music Got Free, a book about the music industry written by Stephen Witt.

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The bot responded to the @search request and sent the results as a ZIP file over DCC.

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Submitting a download request.

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And accept the file.

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If you found a file using the indexer, then you don't need to search for it in the channel. Just send a download request to the bot using the command from the indexer site.

DC++

In a DC network, all communication takes place through a server called a hub. You can search for specific types of files in it: audio, video, archives, documents, disk images.

Sharing files in DC++ is very simple: just check the box next to the folder you want to share general access. Due to this, you can find something completely unimaginable - something that you yourself have long forgotten about, but that can suddenly come in handy for someone.

How to download via DC++

Suitable for any client. For Windows best an option is FlylinkDC++ . Linux Users can choose between and AirDC++ Web .

Search and download are implemented conveniently: enter a query, select a content type, click "Search" and double-click on the result to download the file. You can also view a list of all files opened by the user and download all files from the selected folder. For this you need right click mouse click on the search result and select the appropriate item.

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If you didn't find something, try again later. Often people turn on the DC client only when they themselves need to download something.

Indexers

The built-in search only finds files in online user lists. To find rare content, you need an indexer.

The only known variant is spacelib.dlinkddns.com , as well as its mirror dcpoisk.no-ip.org . The results are presented in the form of magnet links, when clicked, the files immediately start downloading through the DC client. It should be borne in mind that sometimes the indexer is unavailable for a long time - sometimes up to two months.

eDonkey2000 (ed2k), Kad

Like DC++, ed2k is a decentralized data transfer protocol with a centralized hub for finding and connecting users to each other. In eDonkey2000 you can find almost the same thing as in DC++: old series with different voice acting, music, programs, games, old ones, as well as books on mathematics and biology. However, there are also new releases.

At first glance, searching for a file on the Internet using the desired file hosting site is unpromising. But this is only at first glance. Until there is a need to find a specific file on a specific file sharing service. Why on a certain file sharing service? Because regular user most often is the happy owner of one paid gold account. Well, of course, since the money is paid, you need to use this file hosting service for all 200 percent.

Of course, you can score a name desired file in any of the search engines, but the search results in them are displayed without reference to the exchanger. You can take it easy and add the name of the file hosting service to the file name. The results will already be better, but still poorly readable.

It is much easier to use any of the online services. Personally, after spending half an hour, to date I have found only three workers. And I will be very grateful if visitors add their findings in the comments.

You can search here on Rapidshare, Dfiles, Mega, 4shared, Mediafire, and Turbobit. We write or copy the name of the file in the search field, mark the desired file sharing service (file sharing services) and press the "SearchFile" button. You can sort your search by file size.

The screenshot shows a page with search results for my query. Checked all file hosting services one by one. All work. There is an option to search by region, although this is not relevant to us, Russia is not on the list.

There are already many more file hosting services declared on it, although I have never heard of most of them: Mega.co.nz, Bitshare.com, Wupload.com, Freakshare.com, Depositfiles.com, Mediafire.com, Filefactory.com, Rapidshare.com, Uploadstation.com and Uploaded.to. The search procedure itself is similar to the one described above.

A nice addition is the search for videos on YouTube, Dalealplay, Metacafe and Googlevideo services. True, it is worth considering that the service is Spanish, so some videos have the status of not being shown in Russia.

The most powerful of this trio of online services. The initial search is carried out by the file extension. Available: avi, mp3, mpeg, mpg, rar, wma, wmv, zip, rmvb, mkv, mp4, 3gp, flv, torrent, or all.

After receiving preliminary results, the search can be adjusted. Under the "Hosting" menu hides about 60 file hosting services. Again, the appropriate one should be ticked.

Every day the amount of information from the network, and hence on the computers of users, is increasing. On the hard drives of an ordinary user, the number of files can reach several hundred, and finding the right one in the total mass is not at all easy. The standard Windows search engine does not always work quickly and has very poor functionality, so it makes sense to use third-party programs.

In this review, we will consider several programs that will help you find the necessary data on your computer.

This program is perhaps the most powerful tool to search PC drives. It has many fine settings, filters and functions. The distribution also includes additional utilities for interacting with the file system.

One of the distinguishing features of Search My Files is the ability to complete removal files by overwriting with zeros or random data.

SearchMyFiles

Search My Files is often confused with the previous software due to the consonant name. This program differs in that it is easier to use, but at the same time, it lacks some features, such as searching on network drives.

Everything

A simple search program with its own features. Everything can search for data not only on local computer, but also on ETP and FTP servers. It stands out from other representatives of such software in that it allows you to track changes in file system computer.

Effective File Search

Another very easy to set up and use software. With a very tiny size, it has a sufficient number of functions, is able to export results to text and table files, can be installed on a flash drive.

UltraSearch

UltraSearch can find not only files and folders, but also search for information in the content of documents by key phrase or a word. The main distinguishing feature of the program is the automatic initialization of connected media.

REM

REM has a friendlier interface than previous members. The principle of the program is to create zones in which files are indexed automatically, which can significantly speed up the search process. Zones can be created not only on the local computer, but also on disks on the network.

Google Desktop Search

Developed by a world famous company, Google Desktop Search is a small local search engine. With it, you can search for information both on your home PC and on the Internet. In addition to the main function, the program provides for the use of information blocks - gadgets for the desktop.

All the programs in this list are great for replacing the "native" Windows Search. Choose for yourself: install simpler software, but with a smaller set of functions, or a whole search engine with the ability to process files. If you are working with folders and drives in local network, then REM and Everything will suit you, and if you plan to “carry the program with you”, then pay attention to Effective File Search or Search My Files.