The Red Ferret Journal

Apparently there is now a growing class of online search tools called clownsuits. What are they? Search scripts that do an advanced Google search using specific parameters. Like Google Hacks but online. It’s basically a way to find ‘deep’ or ‘invisible’ web material like files and multimedia that generic searches miss. These tools are invariably nothing more than simple scripts which contain pointers to either specific file storage areas like FTP folders, or hosts like Rapidshare or social networks like MySpace. As with all such tech you use them at your own risk. With that in mind, here’s a new selection.

• G2P. Google to Person is clean, simple and very useful for finding difficult to locate material.
• FilesTube. Download everything as they say. Slightly more sophisticated design and functionality, but at heart very much a clown at play.
• ShareMiner. Simple interface, designed to locate files on public upload sites.
• FindMeMP3. New bare bones interface, but some useful results. Previously featured.
• SeeqPod. Grand-daddy of them all and still one of the best in terms of features and design. Also previously featured.

…and finally my own fun clown test Groupzz.com continues to limp along, it’s been a bit crippled by esnips.com (which is a salient lesson in itself for anyone wanting to do this stuff for commercial reasons), but what the hey (hint, the download link is now the streaming link, and the listen is broken).