When Research Wizard Pro (also called Search Accelerator Pro) asked me to review their product, I thought I had to check it out. Anything that promised to save me time on research had to be worth a look. They were very efficient in providing an evaluation copy and it took no time at all to install. While it was installing I skimmed through the manual which comes with it, looking at all the things I could do. The manual does a good job of walking you through some of the main features and you need that walk through. Here’s why.

When I opened up the software I was blown away by the number of icons, toolbars and buttons that appeared on the screen. And let’s not forget the sidebar where you input your queries. I could not hope to talk you through these any better than the manual, so let me just say that though the interface is cluttered, it contains a lot of useful features.

The top left of the screen has a few menu links, a date screen (with a couple of other functions and a search box. When you search, additional options appear in the left sidebar. The right of the screen has about five rows of buttons and links and a built in browser window in the bottom right. These allow you to conduct searches on specific engines, in specific countries and for specific types of content (there’s also some fine tuning in the left hand search box.)

So, on to the field test. I had three research projects for which I usually use Google: a real estate article, an article on energy efficient homes and a lesson on journalism ethics. I decided to try Research Wizard Pro on these to see how it performed.

Case Study 1: The Real Estate Article

When I write these articles, I need a map, an MLS search and a community profile. That’s it. So although using Research Wizard Pro helped me find those things, it wasn’t an improvement on plain old Google. I didn’t need any of the bells and whistles for that project, so they were a distraction.

Case Study 2: Energy Efficient Homes

This was when it started to get interesting. While the main window gave me the standard Google search result (and you can change the default search engine if you want to), the side window gave me the option to narrow my search. I could look only for PDFs or for tutorials or for buying guides or for manuals – or for about 15 other things. I clicked on buying guides and got some great guides to energy efficiency in homes.

Effectively the software adds the resource type to your search term to narrow the search. Sure, I could have searched for that myself, but I might not have. The software has given me some additional ideas for focusing my search terms – and I thought I was already a pretty savvy searcher.

Case Study 3: Journalism Ethics

When I did the third search, I was seriously impressed. I had started to research this topic a few weeks earlier so I was able to make an on the fly comparison of Research Wizard Pro. I found stuff that I didn’t know was out there. I was able to search for tutorials, which helped as that was what I was creating. I will be using the tool to research the rest of the lessons in the course I’m creating. It shaved hours off the time I spend looking for quality resources.

More About Menus

Having tried it a few times, I was ready to look at the huge bank of toolbar icons. This time, they didn’t seem quite as daunting. The related searches bar at the top led me to a new tool, KWMap, which connects keywords related to your search. The next row led to some drop down menus for searching other search engines, RSS feed, video and more. The row below included other search tools and the final row had an address bar and buttons for adding bookmarks.

That leads to one minor gripe. I would have liked to mark resources as favorites within the program, rather than having to add them to my browser. However, I’m told that this functionality is coming in the next release. I have no hesitation in recommending Research Wizard Pro. Once you get accustomed to the interface, it puts a range of search options at your fingertips.