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I never thought I would pay for access to a Web search engine. When Northern Light shut down its public search engine, I just thought, "Buh-bye." Well, I just watched myself pay $60 for a year's access to a way cool search engine that specializes in searching the invisible Web-those parts of the open Web that can't or won't be spidered by the regular search engines.
Welcome to SurfWax [www.surfwax.com]. The goofy name comes from the idea that surf wax is what helps surfers' feet grip their surfboards better, so SurfWax helps Web surfers grip information better. Um, OK. In any event, it's a great tool for finding material that is otherwise hidden in areas of the Web that aren't covered by the regular search engines. Yes, you could go to these sites one at a time and run your search in each one, but we all know how much spare time we have to bounce from site to site.
For basic Web searching, SurfWax functions as a metacrawler, sending your search to a number of search engines, including AlltheWeb, AltaVista, and HotBot, and several directories, such as Yahoo! and Open Directory. You can specify how many hits you...