The Search Cloudlet free add-on for Firefox helps deal with that familiar task of wading through thousands of search results to find the one you're after. It displays a list of tags and other information pertaining to your results that, when clicked, automatically refine the displayed results.
After installing the tiny (20kb) add-on you'll see a block of keywords above your Yahoo or Google search results. Clicking on any of those keywords (for example, 'accessories' or 'reviews' displayed for a google search for 'motorcycles') automatically adds that tag to your search and quickly re-displays results. More common tags are displayed in larger text to help you choose.
You can also narrow results by the site name or top-level domain (ie. .com, .org), or turn off the Cloudlet display, by clicking on a small Cloudlet bar displayed on the results page. If you search News items those options change to allow filtering by the name or location of the news source, such as "Computerworld" or "Canada."
In essence, Cloudlet provides fast, easy and all-at-once access to advanced search options (such as using a site: modifier in your term) that we can already use but don't usually bother with. It won't enhance all your searches, and it does add some textual clutter that could take some getting used to. But if you find yourself having to often refine or customize searches, this free tool could have real value.
Note: Since this review was written, Search Cloudlet has added Twitter support. PC World has not yet evaluated this feature.
--Erik Larkin
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