http://www.gurunet.com

What’s it do?

GuruNet is a subscription-based software reference tool that provides, with a single click, topic-based snapshot answers with accurate definitions and explanations from reliable sources


Does it do what it promises?

Reviewer 1. The Web site accurately describes this product. If anything, it understates its capabilities.

Reviewer 2. Yes, although to suggest that it is the “ultimate reference library” may be a bit of an overstatement. It does provide an excellent basic reference tool for most users; however, for the more serious scholars many of the reference tools used are rather second-rate—certainly not the “ultimate” by any means.

Reviewer 3. Yes, it delivers exactly what it promises.

Reviewer 4. Yes.

Reviewer 5. Yes.

Reviewer 6. As an information wizard it accomplishes this is in a remarkable way. By using a pre-defined key combination of Alt-clicking on a particular word, GuruNet will pop-up with a dictionary, Thesaurus, legal description (if applicable), military definitions and many translations of the word. It actually summarizes its findings so you simply review what it is displaying, copy and paste the results into your Word document, Excel spreadsheet, or email and away you go.

Reviewer 7. This is one of the more ingenious search and reference tools to come along in awhile. In the highly competitive market of access to the information you want immediately on the Internet, this approach is very appealing. With GuruNet installed and waiting in the background you can have it jump to the Internet for you in one of 3 ways: you can Alt-Left-click on a word, type a word into its search-box, or use its “Library”. Just for fun, I did the Alt-Click on GuruNet, and leapt to the following: “GuruNet is a reference library with over 100 TopicBooks covering well over half a million topics. Whether you need quick biographical information, English language tools, science/technology terms, business info, geographical data, acronyms, or info from dozens of other virtual ‘bookshelves’, GuruNet will get you the facts with a single click. Think of it as a shot of instant education whenever you need it.” Does it do this? Yes it does.

Reviewer 8. Not for me: it's easy, quick responses turned out to be mostly superficial or irrelevant to the questions/needs that I had. Only as a Dictionary did it fare very well -- a service available free at Dictionary.com. Otherwise, its organization of information was at cross-purposes to what I was searching for -- e.g., I could not find a list of significant events in WorldHistory|Science|Literature|Music for a year, say 1945 -- which are readily provided by the Information Please Almanac (whose omission as a source it's hard to understand). I also found myself continually reverting to its search-engine interface. Perhaps this is just habit, but I suspect the problem is deeper than that.


Was it easy to install?

Reviewer 1. Installation was straightforward and smooth. The download was reasonably quick on a DSL connection.

Reviewer 2. Yes. It was only a five-minute download using a dial-up connection. It has its own self-installer program that installs itself in its own folder hierarchy. My only complaint is that it configures itself by default to open with Windows and run in the background at all times. Thus, it becomes part of your startup and lodges itself in your task bar as well as creating a desktop icon all without you first having a choice. Of course, I knew to go to the tools setting and customize the configuration but many newbies might not. I admit to being a bit of a stickler on this point, but I just resent software installing itself in my startup process and placing icons on my computer without “asking” me first.

Reviewer 3. Yes, I had no problems installing GuruNet.

Reviewer 4. My experience was convoluted but there were no actual problems the first time, it was just different requiring several steps involving the Web and no downloaded file. The second time I installed it, however, was a bit over-the-top. I needed to put it on a new machine so I followed the same directions as the first time. At first, it wouldn’t let me because it already knew me. I contacted their support and they were very responsive. I followed their directions and got the program to install on my new machine; but, the fun hadn’t stopped yet. When I went to use the program it wanted me to go and ‘activate it’ on their Website. I went there and attempted to insert the code I used to install it but it told me that it was not a valid code. I went back to their support but they didn’t seem to know what was happening. They were very responsive though. Originally, I was given code to install the program; but, as I was on the road, I didn’t get to deal with this software until I got back. That was too late, however, as they had a new version and I was told I’d need a new code if I wanted to install after March 15. I received a second code, went back to the activation/registration site and tried to enter the proper code and again it failed, so I fed it the old code, the code that I had never previously used at all for anything, and it accepted it and now, with one minor glitch. The program is running well on my new PC, but now GuruNet’s service department is telling me that using the two codes caused the problem. Having never used the old code for anything prior to experiencing a problem leaves me wondering how that could be. In short, from what I’ve learned, the system was new and I’d found a ‘wrinkle’ in it. The first time you install is great, after that depends on whatever ‘wrinkle remover’ they’ve applied.

GuruNet responds: This instillation / codes issue was truly a unique problem that only occurred when we switched our subscription model and with that the data base which backs it up. In our original email to you we mentioned that the codes would only work until a specific date and that after that new users would need new codes. It would be a shame for this oversight in the reviewer's directions to confuse potential new users about different activation codes, etc.

Reviewer 5. Yes.

Reviewer 6. Very easy, just follow the prompts. During installation, the program searches for and confirms an Internet connection.

Reviewer 7. Yes. The installation was smooth, allowing me to place it in my own “default” location without any problems.

Reviewer 8. Yes, it was easy to install, but offensive: it downloaded to a temp file, giving me no choice of saving the download, nor where/how it was installed. It's been a VERY long time since I've encountered an installation script that came from the point of view that it knew what was best for me & my machine, leaving me no choice in the matter. Also, after spending 20 minutes groping around for how to supply my registration key to the program I finally had to consult Tech Support to get the answer. I'd strongly recommend this Registration dialogue be put in the Help pull-down menu, which is where it's located conventionally by most programs. Also, even after I'd said I did NOT want it, I was presented with its floating toolbar, actually a well-designed help function that I came to appreciate and use quite often.


Good points.

Reviewer 1. The interface is clean, customizable, and unobtrusive as is reasonably possible. The program brings multiple forms of data access together in one centralized tool. Data access was fast and the software seemed to make good choices for giving data directly, performing a mult-search engine search, or directing you to a third party source of information. Alt-Clicking on any word in ANY program (not just a browser) brings up a search of information on that term. Easy and quick. The license allows this program to be installed on multiple computers with only “one simultaneous use” , a reasonable approach in my opinion.

Reviewer 2. This is truly an excellent program by a company (Atomica Corporation) that has a well-earned reputation for its superior software and excellent customer support. If you are a Windows user, it is indeed a one-click, Web-based fact finder. In addition to being a browser that searches the Web, it is more importantly a tool which can instantly search over 100 reference sources and nearly 700,000 topics to bring you whatever information you need quickly and accurately while you are working with any application running on your computer. Just enter queries into its search box or highlight words in your email, word processor or any other application and alt-click, and GuruNet finds real-time relevant information by giving you answers, not simply links. In addition to its powerful lookup capabilities, GuruNet offers even more. Its language capabilities are excellent, allowing you to view results in 13 languages, or simply use the translation button to translate the content you are viewing into another language. This makes it one of the fastest online translators I have seen. This program also allows you to share information with others by clicking the email button and your email client automatically generates a message complete with a subject header and link to the content you are viewing on the GuruNet Web site, so there is no need for the recipient to have GuruNet installed to retrieve the information. There is also a GuruNet Homework Edition specially designed for students, teachers, and parents. The GuruNet program is surprisingly small (1.6MB) program that leaves an also surprisingly small footprint on your system, and uses sparse system resources to enable it to do its thing. It also allows you to somewhat endlessly tweak several of the program’s options after you have installed it.

Reviewer 3. It was very easy to learn and use. It is a great program for researchers or those who just love information. I particularly like the way it brings up results in several tabbed windows for definition, thesaurus, related images, links, news items, and so forth. Well laid out and simple to use, just hold ALT and click on the word you want to research. Results were plentiful and pertinent to the subject. Intuitive and informative. Great program.

Reviewer 4. It makes looking up words very easy and convenient. Once you get used to it being there it can be very efficient for anyone who spends a lot of time writing and/or researching.

Reviewer 5. Search on a single word via Alt-Left Click. Highly configurable. More than standard search results: for example, search on “seafood” and in addition to a simple definition and glossary entry, you are presented with a tab of recipe links for seafood. GuruNet Topic Bar hides near the System Tray until needed. Don’t need to have a browser or the main GuruNet window open. Ability to block pop-ups in the GuruNet

Reviewer 6. This program is great for many people such as students, doctors or engineers. It helps define language definitions and retrieves facts for different projects.

Reviewer 7. This is an excellent reference tool for anybody who needs to write, in whatever field. Search engines boggle my mind, but are a bit unfocused. In fact, Google is incorporated into GuruNet, so you don’t have to go elsewhere to continue a search, if you want to. But as I write or read documents from someone else, I often want to have precision on that word, or need further information as I am writing and/or reading. With the Alt-Click on hand, I can do this as I work, then get back to the task at hand. Not only can you do this from documents you are using on your own computer (such as the Great Peruvian Novel, or an email from a friend), but when you are viewing a web-page on the Net. The range of information is vast: dictionary, thesaurus, lexicon, translations (word or page) images, news. There is the GuruNet Reference Library, which drops down along the left-hand side of the page, with 18 main topics, and within each one, many sub-topics. I just clicked on “Peruvian”, and hopped to the Dictionary. Along with this tab, there were: Encyclopaedia, Geography, Local Time, Currency (with a converter from/to scores of currencies), Stats, Map, Anthem, Dialing Code, Flag, World Leaders, News, and more. And, of course, Goggle is there too, with all the search possibilities offered therein. The main things I like about GuruNet are its almost instant access and the wealth of information related to any particular word or phrase.

Reviewer 8. I particularly liked the CEO-Page, which I think effectively & persuasively made the case for GuruNet's raison d'etre and what it was seeking to accomplish. Its slogan, "Answers, not Links" is a great battle cry. The challenge is realizing it. Tech Support was great! Turnaround-time was one-half day or better, and their answers were thoughtful and comprehensive, not just WHAT to do (for which they often supplied alternative solutions), but often the WHY of the solution, as well. The bad news was that I had to use it so often! Pricing at $30/yr is quite reasonable and good price performance if GuruNet can find a way to deliver on its promise of quick easy answers at an 'Alt-LeftClick', an outstanding User-Interface concept. It's a treat to find an organization with a sense-of-humor, e.g.. "Do you have any good cookie-recipes?" as an item on the Tech Support Q&A page, and when contacting Tech Support the advice: "Tell us about your computer, the version of GuruNet you are using, if you purchased GuruNet and when, the text of any error messages, your shoe size[!], etc."


Weak points.

Reviewer 1. The documentation is clean and simple, making it easy to get started with the program but leaving features to be found by exploration or experimentation. The online help is more descriptive but I found no prompting to go there. Pricing is by annual subscription. This contrasts with similar (though less comprehensive) services such as Copernic Agent Pro which have a one-time fee. According to Gurunet’s website help section, they used to have a single-fee subscription which is no longer offered. It takes Internet Explorer (IE) longer to open, since Gurunet also opens simultaneously. I did not find a way to prevent this from happening. GuruNet relies on IE components to work, so IE must be installed on your system even if you use another browser.

Reviewer 2. There really are very few weak points in this program and one must look hard to find any. It is possible to confuse GuruNet. If you type in “Miami,” for example, it first wants to tell you about a Native American tribal nation rather than the city. While a tab called, “Did You Mean?” allows you to alter your search, I would think that it might assume the more common meaning. There are no ads in GuruNet but if you are running a pop-up blocker, some GuruNet pages may display an error message. You can avoid this by holding down the control key and clicking in a tab in GuruNet , but it is a little annoying. I am generally opposed to programs which charge you for the download and then “nickel and dime you” by charging a yearly subscription. In this case, however, this program may well be worth it. All in all, this is simply an elegant program that does what it promises easily, effectively, and with few, if any, really serious flaws.

Reviewer 3. I had no real problems with GuruNet, except maybe trying to us it to its full potential.

Reviewer 4. GuruNet makes guesses at unknown or misspelled words, not always good ones. Perhaps it should (at least) tell you that the word is unknown before taking a guess? The ‘alt-click’ causes Word to paste whatever is on the clipboard into the document from which you are working, twice! If the clipboard is clear then it inserts a second copy of the word ‘alt-clicked’ on. There is no provision for doing an ‘alt-click’ on a highlighted phrase. The dictionary is limited. I was looking for shilling (as in “shilling for his book, a shill”) and only got a definition for money. After clicking a few tabs I got back to the dictionary and entered shilling – it claimed there were no entries. (Dictionary.com found the correct definition the first time I looked for it, as did my old, (1994) American Heritage Dictionary that I keep on my PCs.) Therefore, that needs work but hopefully that will get better as the product matures. Same results with ‘ere’ – a word I was using in some musings. (It means ‘rather than; before.’) I did find it in its dictionary but not with ‘alt-click’. GuruNet randomly forgets that it ‘knows’ me and I have to sign-in again. I’ve had occasion where it wouldn’t allow me onto their service at all, failing to recognize my username/password. So far, rebooting and/or waiting awhile have/has solved that mystery.

Reviewer 5. Some links in GuruNet open in an external browser window that does appear to allow popups.
Searches are sometimes hit or miss. Things I expected to produce a lot of results have produced few, and others have produced many.Alt-Click only works with single words.

Reviewer 6. At this time I do not have any concerns or issues related to the installation or running of this application.

Reviewer 7. GuruNet is based on an annual subscription service, so it is the kind of tool that you would purchase if you really plan to use it. It is not really for everyone, but for people who need quick access to precise information: writers, researchers, educators, students, and professionals. Although the company sees uses also for the general public, I would expect it to be those who are insatiably curious. It is very US-centric. Many of GuruNet’s partners are American-based, so the information is US American. For example, in looking in the Library under places, there are 18 sub-topics. One is Local Time – Countries. Another one is Local Time – States. A whole topic, just for US States? When there are more countries in Africa than there are US States? Then three whole topics: US Parks, US Parks by State, US State Stats. Yet, the UNESCO World Heritage Sites, which cover the whole planet, have no sub-topic here, but turn up only when you do an advanced search in Google. For the Encyclopaedia, it might be fun to have references also from something like the Encyclopaedia Britannica. It is still a young company yet, so I hope that they intend to expand their vision, quickly, into the international. To me, this is not just a quibble, but something very important.

Reviewer 8. An objective of skimming the material and supplying only the highest-ranking answers to searches means that you have to get it 'right'. My experience with this program was it seldom succeeded in getting it 'right', often as bad as 1 relevant hit in 5 listed, seldom any better than 3-in-5, for my set of test queries. I'd run, not just walk, away from such ineffectiveness! The Quick Tutorial was sophomoric -- neither helpful content-wise, nor well-presented -- and it's the only-game-in-town! Otherwise, you're own your own to figure out what's where how to use the program, which I found in most cases counter-intuitive and time-consuming. Most users will not stand for this and will be gone in less than the trial period. A structural explanation of how the material is organized and how to use the program to find answers effectively is desperately needed, and also what recourse one has for deeper follow-up searching if the initial attempt fails.


Other comments.

Reviewer 1. No spyware was detected by SpyBot on scan after installation.

Reviewer 2. As I mentioned at the beginning of this review, arguably other than for the very serious scholar, GuruNet may well be a good replacement to the traditional search engine. As brilliant a search engine as is Google, rather than the hundreds of “hits” which are simply all too often useless links to Web pages where information might be found, GuruNet provides you answers. Even your traditional browser isn’t designed to drill down into information, and neither Google (or any traditional search engine) or your browser provides you any guarantee of credible sources, just their popularity. In this day and age of “instant gratification,” GuruNet is an information magnet that is truly a viable, cost-effective alternative to finding information online.

Reviewer 3. GuruNet is an excellent program and has become one of my favorites.

Reviewer 4. I didn’t like how it installs without giving you a file to reinstall from. I’m OK with just being able to use it on one computer (or two, desktop and laptop) but there are ways to detect for that. i.e. Cloudmark Spamnet always tells me when I install it on a new computer and tells me that it is disabling it on the third; so I know it can be done.) When I purchase software on the Web, I want either a CD or an installation file. Going from one computer to another was way too hard with this product. Customer service is very responsive but I think they need to listen harder to what the customer is saying. (How could that old key have caused the problem when I had never used it prior to solving the problem with it?) It’s OK not to know what is causing a problem; but problems will never get solved unless they are understood. (I don’t mean to go on here, but I have an extensive background in test engineering and good communication is halfway to solving any problem. Of course it may be that I over-explained things and something gets lost in translation?) I’d like to see the ability to highlight a phrase and ‘alt-click’ to look up the whole phrase. You can type a phrase in GuruNet’s main window; I just can’t ‘alt-click’ a phrase straight out of a document.

Reviewer 5. The ability to highlight a group of words or a sentence using Alt-Click would be a big help for using GuruNet in a browser.

Reviewer 6. One thing I personally like is when you start the program, the Internet Start page has a variety of interesting facts, such as daily Topics, Word of the Day, Tip of the Day, etc. This may not be for everyone, but it is something I enjoy and use in my daily activities. I research a lot of advanced graphic applications and all I have to do is type in the name of the graphic program I am using and it retrieves Web sites with a brief summary of what each site hold. It is then a simple matter of selecting the Web link and reviewing what I am searching for. This is simply a “one-click dictionary and Thesaurus with multiple extensions available”.

Reviewer 7. GuruNet can be accessed by having the software installed on your computer (PC or Mac, but not Linux yet). When it is running in the background, you will have instant access. But if you are travelling (or use Linux), you can use GuruNet directly from their Web site. There is a version of GuruNet that is kid-oriented. This means that they would have access to homework sites, research topics, exams and other kinds of youngster-related interests and needs. I did not see this myself, so cannot really comment on it.

Reviewer 8. An excellent objective, but the program definitely in Beta-test stage at this point -- NOT ready for prime-time! I definitely hope it succeeds, but a long shot from what I can see at this point. Adult search filter defaults to 'on' without advising user. Also, lots of pages in Images section for 'Sexy' were dead ends. Trial use period limit of 15 days is tight, but probably OK in this case, although I'd recommend 30 days, which is minimum standard expected in the industry, and it's hard to believe they'd lose many, if any, customers as a result. Initially I opted for the smaller icon bar and couldn't find the way to get back.

GuruNet responds: GuruNet welcomes users to use GuruNet without signing up with us. Just visit our homepage, type into the lookup bar there, and GuruNet will give you your answer. You can also download and install GuruNet for Windows and the GuruNet IE Toolbar from http://www.gurunet.com/what_tools.jsp . Guest users are granted free access to all of our core content, including Dictionary, Encyclopedia, Personalities, Weather and more


Will you continue to use it?

Reviewer 1. Yes, at least for the current subscription period. I’ll have to see whether my usage justifies the annual fee when it comes up for renewal.

Reviewer 2. Yes

Reviewer 3. Yes, absolutely. It has made itself all but indispensable.

Reviewer 4. Yes, cautiously; but, it is useful.

Reviewer 5. Yes, I think this is a good addition to a search arsenal, althought not an all-encompassing tool.

Reviewer 6. Yes, I will definitely continue to use it. As I review graphic programs and create on-line help files for computer users, this is something I have been looking forward to for quite sometime.

Reviewer 7. Yes, certainly. It has already been very helpful to me, as I do a lot of written work and research. But I hope that they will take seriously my comment about widening their horizons.

Reviewer 8. No. Besides its current implementation issues, I found its organization of data compartmentalized in what was, to me, an unhelpful structure. I'd much rather deal with Google's supplying more data for review, but getting to make my own choices of what to inspect/ignore. I also found its User-Interface awkward, counter-intuitive, and frustrating to use.

GuruNet responds: I think that this reviewer just didn't get what GuruNet is, which is surprising since all of the others seemed to pick up on it quite nicely. One example is his quote "I could not find a list of significant events in WorldHistory|Science|Literature|Music for a year, say 1945" -- This is understandable, since GuruNet is a topic-based reference resource. He/ she was using GuruNet like a search engine and not a reference resource. GuruNet encourages users to look up a topic, word or phrase, not a natural language query, in order to deliver superior results.

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