A New Kind Of Tagging?

Everyone uses Google but what about narrowing down your search, or looking for something that may not be on the open Web?

One option is FindArticles, owned and just re-launched by LookSmart.com, which last July acquired Furl, the social bookmarking service. According to a press release issued today, improvements mean that FindArticles’ features include the ability to search by topic, or view only “Free Articles,” making it easier for Web searchers to find what they want without having to scroll through pages and pages of search results. Once searchers find what they’re after, they can save the entire page with Furl — LookSmart’s personalized, online bookmarking service.

FindArticles gives searchers the ability to sort through a comprehensive collection of reliable sources that includes more than 1,000 publications. Searchers can sort results by article date, length, relevance or publication name, and can refine the relevance of their results by inserting new search terms as needed.

Other new features include “hot new articles” and “top articles ever” for each of FindArticles’ neatly organized categories: Arts & Entertainment, Automotive, Business & Finance, Computers & Technology, Health & Fitness, Home & Garden, News & Society, Reference & Education, and Sports.

The press release says FindArticles has articles from thousands of resources with archives dating back to 1984, and millions of articles not found on any other search engine. By working with the best sources, FindArticles has compiled all the essential publications covering a wide range of subjects — and is continually adding to the collection.

Worth checking out. I’m interested by synergies between Furl and FindArticles, although of course I’m also concerned that this might be at the cost of the the broader opportunities of a more open system like del.icio.us.