Surfulater
Reviewed July, 210
| What’s It Do?
This program permanently saves anything seen on the Web from selected text and images to complete Web pages. The user may add notes, tags, and links; edit content; organize information and content such as Word documents, PDF, and ZIP files; and quickly find saved data. Does it do what it promises? Reviewer 1 - Name withheld by request: Yes. All saved material is easy to find, even if the original Web site or other document source is no longer available, and it can be accessed without being connected to the Internet. In my experience, Surfulater definitely lives up to its promises. Reviewer 2 - Peter Royle: Yes, it captures Web pages very easily and offers a variety of tools to help store, organize, manage, edit, and even distribute the pages that stored in the "Knowledge Base." Reviewer 3 - Mark Snyder: Yes. The Web site claims that with Surfulater one can save, edit and annotate, manage, and retrieve anything found on the Web. It is, in fact, a very flexible and robust Web-capturing program and information manager. I would take exception only to the claim that it is easy to use. Was it easy to install? Reviewer 1 - Name withheld by request: Yes. The 6 MB file downloaded very quickly and installation was straightforward on both my Windows XP Pro desktop and my Windows 7 netbook. Both times, I was offered the option of having backup copies made of all files replaced during the installation. The EULA was a little inconsistent about whether Surfulater's free trial period is 21 or 30 days; however, the Web site makes it clear that the trial period lasts for 21 days, that one can restart the trial period, and that there is an unconditional 30-day money-back guarantee. Also, the FAQ states explicitly that purchasing Surfulater entitles the buyer to install the program on "up to five simultaneous computers for the same user," a very generous provision. Reviewer 2 - Peter Royle: Yes, it is a standard Windows installation process that allowed me to place the program files and shortcuts in the locations of my choice. Once the program folder is defined, it also creates a Backup subfolder, in which it places any files that may be changed or replaced during the installation of the program. It will use these if the program is uninstalled or one's system is rolled back to its "pre-Surfulater" state. Just before the end of the installation, this message appears: "Surfulater integrates with Internet Explorer and Firefox." I appreciate this touch, as I believe that I should always know exactly what is being installed on my computer, and where there is an option, that I should have veto power. In this case, the developers have let me know that IE and Firefox are going to be altered with this particular program. Reviewer 3 - Mark Snyder: Yes. It is a surprisingly small 5.96MB file that took mere seconds to download on a reasonably fast broadband connection, but does require 20MB of disc space. Installation was fast and smooth, using the now familiar install wizard. Equally smooth was the registration process with the exception that I could not cut and paste the long and complicated license number into the program but had to enter it manually. Neville Franks, Surfulater's author, responded: To Activate a Surfulater License it is simply a matter of copying the license to the windows Clipboard and using Help | Activate License, which automatically extracts the license details from the Windows Clipboard. Both the Invoice Web Page and the Activate License window explain this clearly. It asked before placing icons on my desktop, which I appreciate, and offered the standard choices as to the start menu and download location. The program seemed to integrate seamlessly into the Windows operating system. Overall, it was a quick and clean installation with no real configurations necessary, and it uninstalled easily and cleanly as well. There is a standard EULA (End User License Agreement) stating the now standard disclaimer of any liability; however, the licensing agreement may be one of the most generous I have seen-allowing the program to be installed on up to five computers. Additionally, there is a 21-day trial period (which can be extended) as well as a 30-day money-back guarantee. My only concern was why it needed my name, address, and telephone number for registration, Neville Franks, Surfulater's author, responded: I have no idea what Mr. Snyder is referring to here. The only details required for registration are the User Name and Serial Number which you get when you purchase a license. and why it needed outbound access through my firewall which I found especially disturbing. Neville Franks, Surfulater's author, responded: License activation is done over the Internet which is the same as Microsoft product activation. Good points. Reviewer 1 - Name withheld by request: One of the first things that impressed me about Surfulater is how easy it is to use. Although it is a feature-rich program, it took me very little time to get up to speed. It has excellent documentation that enabled me to create a new database (called a Knowledge Base ) in which I could store the articles, clippings, and other information I wanted to save. (The ability to create new Knowledge Bases does not exist in the free trial version.) To save all or part of an article or Web page, I simply highlighted what I wanted to capture, right-clicked, and selected one of several options: Add New Article, Add Article plus Web Page, Attach Page to Article, or Bookmark Article. Since I try to avoid saving more items than I need, I usually chose Add New Article. The article would be added to the New Articles folder in my Knowledge Base . I could then edit it if I wished; for example, by adding comments or keywords (called Tags), modifying the article, highlighting key passages, and/or attaching relevant files. I also found that I could add other Surfulater files I had saved to a "See Also" line, and that doing so would add reciprocal links between the two files. Adding to Surfulater's ease of use are a number of pop-up instructions that explain how to do something. For example, when a new article is added to the Knowledge Base, a pop-up box appears that points to where the article is and provides instructions for how to move it to a different folder. This can be very helpful for a new user. When this help is no longer needed, the user can tell Surfulater to stop showing a particular instruction. Another quality that I like in Surfulater is its flexibility. There are often several ways to accomplish a given task. I counted at least five ways to move a new article to a different folder. I was thus able to choose the one I found most convenient. Surfulater also offers a number of "templates" that may help the user to save and work with different kinds of information. The eleven templates that come with Surfulater include, for example, templates for storing contact information, cataloging music, making a to-do list, storing code snippets, saving a quick note, and more. The user can also alter the appearance of the templates, change the templates to include more or fewer categories, rearrange the categories, change fonts, font size, font color, etc., and create new templates. A vital aspect of any information management system is its ability to find the information it contains. Here, too, Surfulater excels (with one important exception I discuss under "Weak Points"). I was able to do full-text searches (using quotation marks if I wanted an exact phrase) as well as boolean searches (Surfulater recognizes the standard boolean operators and, or, not, ( ), " ", ?, and *). Searches are lightning fast, and the results are conveniently placed in a Search Folder. The Search Folder's contents remain accessible even after Surfulater has been closed and reopened unless the user has asked that the folder be emptied or its contents are replaced by a new search. It is also possible to display a Knowledge Base in chronological order. This can be handy if one is having difficulty finding a given article through a normal search but one knows approximately when the article was saved. Surfulater also includes a "Tag" category, where the user can add keywords. This can be especially useful if one wants to be able to bring together pieces of information that would not turn up via a normal search; for example, articles that might be useful in planning a trip to, say, New Zealand. Placing an NZ tag on all such articles would make it possible to quickly locate saved information on subjects as diverse as air fares, paragliding, Maori history, insurance, people to contact, restaurants, rental car companies, concerts and special events, weather conditions, and more. These tagged items would all appear together if the user chooses the Tag Tree view of the Knowledge Base. Finally, Surfulater offers what it calls "Knowledge Tree Filter," that enable the user to view only those folders and/or articles whose titles contain a specific word or words. Some programs limit the places to which information can be saved. Surfulater has no such limitations. I was able to save all or part of a Web page, a Word or WordPerfect document, an email message from any email program, and more. Also, I found that Surfulater worked beautifully not just with the Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers but with Opera as well (thanks to instructions provided by a reader in the Surfulater Forums). Another outstanding strength of Surfulater is the superb tech support provided by its developer, Neville Franks. Users can seek help either by email or by posting a message via a form on the Surfulater web site (this option apparently replaces the Forums that existed until the new website was launched a few days ago). In either case, the developer is likely to promptly respond with full, helpful answers, almost always within 24 hours and often more quickly than that. Reviewer 2 - Peter Royle: Instant access from the right-click menu, when in Internet Explorer or Firefox, makes it easy to use Surfulater. Content stored in the Surfulater "Knowledge Base" is structured like the folders, sub-folders and files in an Explorer-like tree format. These can be moved around and organized as desired and their contents can be edited and formatted. Any number of Knowledge Bases can be created and articles can be moved between Knowledge Bases. I particularly like the time-saving ability to select an article, or content from an article, and include it in email messages or email the complete article as it appears. Once this function is set up, Surfulater sends email without using one's default email program. Articles captured to the Knowledge base are almost as good as the Web page itself. Most of the links are as clickable as those in the original article. There is a Web Page Thumbnail for navigation directly to the actual page on the Web. I found the Search feature to be very impressive. As a word or phrase is entered, the Knowledge Base folders start to disappear, leaving only those associated with the search. Support questions are submitted on a dedicated support site. Answers to these questions are published on the site, and copied to the email address supplied when one registers on the site. I understand that these questions and answers will be added to the Knowledge Base and FAQ's as well. The special site for Help and Support suggests that the developers have great respect for their users and want to respond to their needs, their problems, their feedback and their ideas. Reviewer 3 - Mark Snyder: Surfulater is a surprisingly powerful desktop program that enables one to manage Internet research with Web capturing and capable note taking capabilities. In short, it is like having an Internet research office equipped with filing cabinets complete with drawers, folders for organizing files; a "photocopier" to make and save copies of one's research; and a "secretary," i.e. search tool to find everything. With Surfulater one needs no longer to wade through hundreds of bookmarks only to find the one wanted offering a dead link. Web pages or sites can be captured, in part or in their entirety, including the URL, and these can be annotated with comments and stored them in a highly customizable filing system, permanently on a hard drive for easy retrieval at anytime even when offline. In addition, the user: 
Can import bookmarks from both IE and Firefox to add to
the Surfulater filing system;
Reedit or further annotate pages already saved as well as
cross -reference them;
Automatically capture the Web page's address (URL), the
page title, date captured, and a thumbnail image of the page;
Search with a very fast full text search engine for
captured items;
Display captured content with an internal engine that
thus does not require an installed browser; and,
Choose from a wide selection of small icons to further
identify and organize the file system of captured Web pages and
notes.Weak points. Reviewer 1 - Name withheld by request: Although, on the whole, Surfulater has excellent search capabilities, I was disappointed that it cannot search for words containing foreign characters such as ñ, ç, ü, or é. It can accept these characters in the Knowledge Base, but it can't use them in its main search mechanism. Thus, I can't search for words such as mañana, français, über, or élève unless they appear in the article's title (although the full-text search mechanism cannot accept these characters, the Knowledge Base filter that deals only with the titles of folders and articles can do so). Since I frequently save articles in Spanish, French, and occasionally German, I consider this a significant weakness. Fortunately, the developer has reported that he is working on the problem. Given his excellent track record, I am hopeful that he will fix this shortcoming. Another weak point in Surfulater is that it does not offer a way to back up one's files automatically. Indeed, it is even somewhat cumbersome to back up one's files manually, since each Knowledge Base consists of not one but three files that need to be backed up. One other weak point I've found in Surfulater has to do with saving files. Surfulater seems to take longer to save files than did the previous information management program I used. Also, I'm often not sure when an article has been saved. I usually use my computer with the sound turned off, so I don't hear the sound that Surfulater makes when something has been saved. If Surfulater is already open, a box will pop up briefly in the lower right-hand corner of my screen telling me that Surfulater has saved an article, but if I try to save an article when the program is closed, the pop-up box does not appear. I contacted the developer about this issue, and he said he will look into the possibility of having the box pop up even when Surfulater is not already running. Reviewer 2 - Peter Royle: Capturing content from other applications and storing them in the Knowledge Base did not always work for me. I could capture content that is mostly text, such as email messages. I was less successful with other types of applications such as PDF files. It is possible to attach files to an article by clicking on the link as one would with an attached file in, for example, an email message. The original file will then appear. Whereas Web pages come into Surfulater appearing much the same as the Web page itself, content captured from a .doc file, for example, appears as would a text file, without retaining formatting.. A work-around is possible, by attaching a file to an article; however, this tends to defeat many of the features such as editing, and searching that provide much of the interest of the program. There is some discussion on the Surfulater Web site about capturing pages from within Opera or Chrome. At present, this must be done in the same way as other applications; the default hotkey is Ctrl-Alt-/. But, like other applications, the formatting unfortunately is lost. Neville Franks, Surfulater's author, responded: Opera does not copy any Formatting information to the Windows Clipboard, which prevents Surfulater from capturing formatted content. However Google Chrome does copy formatted content and works correctly with Surfulater in the tests we have done. Reviewer 3 - Mark Snyder: The only major weakness I found was the program was far too complicated for easy use. Notwithstanding an excellent help file, I spent literally hours of frustration learning to use this program. Other shortcomings noted are:
The GUI (Graphic User Interface) needs improvement to
make it more user friendly. It is not intuitive and is
bewildering with its toolbar options and drop down menus, not
withstanding that it does provide mouse-over descriptions of its
function;
Lack of support for Opera is a major disadvantage for me
as it is my default browser. It needs to support Opera and
Chrome-especially as the popularity of both IE and Firefox are
waning;Neville Franks, Surfulater's author, responded: Unlike other Web Browser Opera does not provide any Extension capability which prevents us from integrating directly with it. However our Support Forums includes information on getting Opera and Surfulater to work nicely together. Google Chrome currently has a limitation on its Extension capability. When this is addressed we will provide integration with Surfulater.
Resource usage is a bit high for this type of program,
with it consuming 51MB of memory just sitting opened;
Error reporting system is not functioning properly. If an
error occurs one is asked if he wishes to have the program open
the email client and send an email. If the user clicks "yes," it
does open the email program but lists as the address in the "To"
section, the name of the crash report;
Support is confusing with a Support Center, Support
Forum, a FAQ system which is obviously in its very early stages,
and an email support ticket system. While the support is
excellent and given a personal handling by the developer, it is
really confined only to the Support Forum-which is, admittedly,
very active. The FAQ section is worthless at the moment. In
fact, when entering a search question, there are no answers
other than the five or six "recently asked" that are already
listed. Worse, unless one clears his cache, every time another
question is asked, it reverts to the original question asked.
There is an email ticket direct support system but one is
discouraged from using it and it has a stated one- to two-day
turn around time. Finally, receiving only a single year of
support for a program of this expense seems unusually
restrictive; and,
Pricing at $79.00 is far too expensive unless one can
actually use the five-computer license.Neville Franks, surfulater's author, responded: Many of our customers use Surfulater on three or more computers. Most software is priced for a single installation. This would require such users to purchased 3 licenses! Developer's Web site. Reviewer 1 - Name withheld by request: The Web site is attractive, informative, clear, and easy to navigate. It does a good job of explaining the compelling advantages of information management programs to those unfamiliar with such software. The site also includes a number of excellent illustrated explanations of how Surfulater works and some of its major features. Included, too, are Frequently Asked Questions, a search box for more information, links for downloading the program, buying it, contacting the developer, reading the developer's most recent blog entries, and reading statements from satisfied customers explaining how they use Surfulater. Reviewer 2 - Peter Royle: Except for the Home page, I find the site to be well-designed, with an attractive and effective layout. Navigation is very easy, with multiple links on each page to quickly find information. A new support system is being developed to replace the Users forum. Reviewer 3 - Mark Snyder: I found the site difficult to traverse. There seems to be help and support tabs everywhere but they all lead to only further help and support links-some buried in the midst of the FAQ. There is tab for FAQ, a Tab for Help & Support and a tab for Contact and Support. This maze-like support structure needs to be consolidated and simplified. Additionally, there are several glitches on the main page of the site, For example, on the large ad for Surfulater on the main page there is a vertical row of numbers 1 - 4 next to a screenshot of the product; however, clicking on these numbers does nothing. Neville Franks, Surfulater's author, responded: I have tested IE, Firefox, Opera and Chrome and clicking on these numbers works correctly in each. I did however notice an issue with Opera where you had to wait for the entire page to load before clicking on the numbers would work. Also the screenshots offered are grayed out when clicked on to enlarge. In addition to several on the main page, the Web site offers an entire page devoted to those so-called and unverifiable customer testimonials that are all too often associated with software that has failed the test of serious professional scrutiny and must rely on out-of-context customer quotes to sing its praises. No serious consumer takes this type of "customer reviews" seriously as they are always unsubstantiated and unverifiable at best. Neville Franks, Surfulater's author, responded: Some of the testimonials include links to their original Web source, e.g... USA Today, & Small Biz Technology. Others are emails we have received. All are authentic and can be verified. Finally, the Web site needs demos and tutorials to more efficiently help the user in learning how to use the program. In this day and age of easily making and embedding video tutorials, there is no reason not to make this available-especially on a rather complex program. Neville Franks, Surfulater's author, responded: The Surfulater Web Site, Blog and Support Center have undergone a major update which was commenced on June 25th 2010. We are still in the process of fine tuning the new site and making further updates and enhancements. Other comments. Reviewer 1: Name withheld by request: New Knowledge Bases can be created only in Surfulater's registered version. In the trial version, the user can work only with the large sample Knowledge Base that comes with the program. Reviewer 2 - Peter Royle: In general, I like the way that this program works. I am most impressed to their commitment to their users and potential clients by the time and effort they are putting into the Help and Support web-site. There are areas that I would like to see improved, particularly in the formatting of content captured from other applications, and from browsers such as Opera and Chrome; but, I expect that the program will continue to evolve and improve. At present, I find the price to be on the expensive side, considering that there is other competition in this particular niche. But I have already found the program to be useful to me, and, with the caveat about the price, I recommend it. Reviewer 3 - Mark Snyder: While I have been critical of this software program in some areas, I am also aware that this developer has earned a reputation for being not only customer oriented, but working with his customers as well to continue to improve this program. I do not want to underplay this fact, as it is very important. The program itself is excellent in its features and ability but only lacks some needed improvements in the area of overall support to make the learning curve a bit less steep. I also think the idea of justifying a non-competitive price by offering a license good for five computers tends to sound just a bit too much like a scam as I would imagine there are very, very few customers who have more than two computers on which to use the program. If in fact you can afford to sell essentially five licenses for $79.00 then it would seem the program is really only worth approximately $16.00 for a single computer. If I go shopping and find something priced five for a dollar, standard business practice is that I can purchase one for twenty cents. To make the customer pay a higher price for something he or she does not need or want is not being customer oriented, it is simply revenue raising. Neville Franks, Surfulater's author, responded: As I mentioned earlier we have quite a number of customers using Surfulater on 3 or more computers. At home Desktop and Notebook PC, at work Desktop and Notebook PC. I don't think any of these folks would remotely agree with Mr. Snyder's comment. In fact I find this proposition quite ludicrous. Will you continue to use it? Reviewer 1 - Name withheld by request: Yes, definitely! It has become my favorite information management program. Reviewer 2 - Peter Royle: Yes. Reviewer 3 - Mark Snyder: No, but only because I have another program with which I am more comfortable. |