Browseback 1.1 , an app purpose at investigator or anyone who use the WWW on a regular basis , ply a ocular path to graze your vane - surfing history . The broadcast catalogue your surfriding history across multiple browsers , including Apple ’s Safari (; November 2005 ) , Mozilla ’s Firefox (; November 2005 ) , and Microsoft ’s Internet Explorer . you’re able to perform full textbook searches of antecedently viewed pages as well as scroll across an archive of thumbnail representing each page you have recently visited .

Setting up Browseback

When you first start the political program , Browseback build an exponent of your browsing story . Depending on how far back you choose to go , the initial indexing cognitive process could take quite a while . When I first ran Browseback and set it to import my entire history , I had to let it run overnight . But it took just a few minute to build an index that encompass a duet of weeks . Once the curriculum has created its initial index , it will start more quickly ; plus you’re able to opt to have Browseback launch in the background when you access , giving you even faster access to your history .

Browseback exhibit three row of 30 thumbnail pages each , open out like a deck of bet cards . Moving your mouse over each row stimulate the thumbnails to diffuse out . A window in the shopping center expose data about the thumbnail pageboy your cursor is on , including title , URL , and the date you last accessed it . Navigational buttons allow you to move forwards , back , and to either ending of the exponent .

typecast a inquiry into Browseback ’s main search box or enter a range of particular date brings up a set of thumbnails that represent the solution of your hunt . Once you ’ve found the Sir Frederick Handley Page you ’re interested in , you’re able to tap its thumbnail to get up a menu of usable options . Choosing the Browse Web choice open a fresh version of the page in your nonremittal web browser . Other option include catch , preservation , emailing , or printing a PDF of the archived page . Since it uses AppleScript to enclose PDFs for netmail , the program supports only certain email programs , including Microsoft Entourage (; August 2004 ) , Apple Mail (; September 2005 ) , Bare Bones Software ’s Mailsmith (; November 2003 ) , Qualcomm ’s Eudora (; January 2004 ) , and CTM Development ’s PowerMail (; October 2002 ) .

A few annoyances

Also , Browseback ’s graphics - intensive interface and heavy index can become a resource drainage on your Mac . If you ’re running the program on older hardware or with a low amount of memory , it can cause your organisation to become sluggish . Depending on your browsing habits and the amount of story you choose to power , you may find Browseback using even more memory board than your Web browsers .

I also question the program ’s usefulness for many Web drug user . With all of the lookup engine out there , I found that I could usually locate an up - to - escort interlingual rendition of a page about as fast as I could determine an archived version using Browseback . for certain , it help you locate page that have changed , but even then , Browseback is circumscribe : It only archives text and still necessitate to download artwork from the site so as to create PDFs .

Macworld’s buying advice

Once I finished marvel at the slick interface , I get hold that I did n’t really need Browseback ’s characteristic that much . Although the program let you access pages that you may no longer find , that feature of speech does come at a cost in terms of organization resourcefulness . However , if you are constantly refer to your web internet browser ’s history , or you need full - textbook searching , Browseback 1.1 is worth a try .

[ Matt Vanceis a technology advisor , Web developer , and freelance writer living in Austin , Texas . ]