Description:
If you view the World Wide Web as a giant virtual scrapbook, then Data Becker's Web Magnet is the tool for sifting through it and uncovering the media files that you need. Web Magnet sorts, catalogs, and downloads images, sound files, and video clips from the Web to a specified folder. It can search any number of Web sites, as well as major search engines and Usenet newsgroups, based on a keyword or filename.Here's how it works: smaller files such as still images (including JPEG and GIF) and sound files (like MP3) are downloaded immediately as matches to the search are found. Because of the size of most video files like MPEG and MOV, matches for these searches are only listed, not downloaded; files can then be individually selected for downloading. As search matches for image files are found, Web Magnet creates a thumbnail preview for each. Most image files can be viewed in Web Magnet's image viewer, but (oddly enough) GIF files cannot. Also, sound files and video clips cannot be viewed inside Web Magnet and require their own viewer. Speed is of the essence when it comes to a tool like this, and Internet connection speed really determines how useful or painful using Web Magnet can be. On a fast connection like a cable modem or DSL line, Web Magnet can be a fast and easy way to gather pictures for a school report or church bulletin. On a slower dial-up line like a 56K modem, downloading large sets of images, not to mention video clips, can be somewhat painful. Web Magnet is simple and convenient. It bundles search, download, and organization processes into one application, making it fast and easy to pull together the images or audio-video clips that you need. --Mike Caputo
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