iHarvest Evaluation

iHarvest is an information management tool that allows users to collect, organize, and share collections of Web-based information with others in a convenient browser based application. Information collected can be partial or whole Web pages, links, or graphics and can also be pulled from E-Mail or files residing on the user's hard drive. You can sign in to iHarvest and view your saved information using practically any modern browser. However, you need a Microsoft Windows platform and Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape� Navigator� to harvest information from the Web.

The program is integrated within the browser, appearing along the left column of the browser window itself, and provides users with the ability to drag and drop selected pieces of information into user-defined folders called "collections." In addition to being stored in the user's personal Webbase, captured information can also be E-Mailed directly to friends and colleagues, and the entire Webbase and/or selected sections of it can be exported to be sent to others, whether or not they themselves are using the iHarvest product. By assigning a key word to each item that you save, IHarvest One allows you to do a search on all this information and compile a report of items categorized by those key words. You can even send this report to others. It doesn't matter if they are not using iHarvest . The best feature of iHarvest is that it is free; all you need to do is visit the site and fill in a short form. For no fees, you must tolerate some advertising; or you can pay for the ad-free premium version. For searching the Web, iHarvest offers WebSearch+, which helps you generate queries for a variety of search engines. iHarvest also includes Agents, which let you create queries based on page properties such as title, notes, or keywords. Agents can be saved by name and reused, automatically moving captured items to specific collections. For instance, any page with the keyword eBusiness can be automatically moved to a specified folder.

In its functions, IHarvest is unique. You install a toolbar and select a "Harvest It" button when you visit a page you want to store. (Alternately, you can harvest a selected page with a right-click.) The page--with links intact--is then viewable in a folder format on your personal IHarvest page. iHarvest opens up as a pane on the left side of your browser window. It allows you to capture anything-Web pages, snippets of pages, email messages, etc.-and store them in hierarchal folders in the left pane. But it goes beyond simple capturing of data. Whenever you capture information, iHarvest prompts you to associate categories and keywords with the data. It also automatically stores properties for each captured item, including title, URL (for Web pages) and the date and time you captured the information. You can also write brief notes for each item. iHarvest offers three options for sharing information. First, you can create portable WebBases, which other iHarvest users can easily import. You can also bundle up pages into a package that is viewable in any Web browser. Or you can generate html pages to be posted on the Web.

With its simple integration, abundace of features, excellent on-line tutorial, and low price (view advertisements), iharvest is an excellent tool for the frequent web surfer. For example, say you need to translate an article from a German newspaper into English. With iHarvest, you can save the news article, a translation program, and a spell checker all in one folder. When you go back to check out the results, you can view the article in one streaming document, or you can opt to flip through it page by page.

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