App Review: Multisearch

When we are searching the web at home or on the go, we’re always looking for the most accurate search we can get, often trying different search engines until we find what we’re looking for. On the iPhone, the default search engine is Google, but there have also been apps from Bing and Yahoo to help us with our searches.

A company called iJen has released a search app called Multisearch, for iPhone and iPod Touch, that will do simultaneous searches in multiple resources, making your search easier and more efficient.

Here’s what the developer has to say about it:

MultiSearch allows you to choose amongst 20 of the best engines to make your internet keyword searches. Unlike some other applications, MultiSearch performs searches SIMULTANEOUSLY on all selected engines. You can use MultiSearch to search, all in a while, videos on Youtube, informations on Google or Bing and the latest tweets on Twitter.

MultiSearch can do simultaneous search on:
– Google, Bing, Wikipedia, Yahoo, Amazon, eBay
– Youtube, Flickr, iTunes, AppStore, Last.fm, Panoramio
– Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Digg, FriendFeed
– Qype, Yelp, Gowalla, Foursquare, UpComing
(more coming…)

All the results are displayed in a single browsable view, just like with your usual internet browser. You can also save your keywords and locate your results for more accuracy (try ‘doctor’ with geo-location activated, MultiSearch will find all doctors nearby and will adapt results to your current location). For even more accuracy, you can choose a search language (some search engines, like Google or Bing can adapt their results given a specific country or language). Last but not least, auto-complete, bookmarks and search history are included for easier internet searches. Many other search engines will be added in the following weeks (more than 20 at the moment !). MultiSearch runs on all types of iPod touch (1st/2nd gen.) and all kind of iPhones (1, 3G, 3GS) and needs iPhone OS 3.0 or superior.

Overall, this app is okay. Performing a single search on multiple search engines can be pretty handy. Your search results are sorted by search engine, so you can compare relative information to see which one was more accurate. I found the in app browser a little slow and chunky, but there is an option to open the page you are viewing in Safari. The app is free, but you get some pretty huge adds, almost right in the middle of the screen. That was pretty annoying. There is an option to pay $1.99 to get rid of the adds, via in app purchasing, but I’m not sure this would be worth two bucks to a lot of people.

A great app, if you can put up with the giant adds.

Hey, check me out over at www.iEvolution.ca, and on Twitter: @rorypiper

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