Where would the web be without the Greek prefix 'meta' ("used with the name of a discipline to designate a new but related discipline designed to deal critically with the original one" - Webster)?

First it was "metasearching": the harnessing of several search-engines into one united question-mark hurtling across cyberspace in search of an answer.

For newbies, try MetaCrawler, SavvySearch, or Inference Find.

Now it's "metabrowsing"- "to view and combine any web content according to a user's preferences."

Technology company SpotOn has introduced an Australian browser attachment to the New Zealand web which, it claims, "revolutionises internet use."

Well, actually, no ... The concept has been around a while now. A couple of years ago QuickBrowse hit the web, brainchild of freelance US journalist Marc Fest.

It's an ingenious bit of software which lets you aggregate your own content - in effect, be your own portal - by combining multiple sites into one page.

"Click-free browsing" is its promise, and indeed its system of updating and preloading your chosen URLs makes it simple and quick to do the rounds of those sites you need to visit daily.

Recently it added a QB-Search facility, which presents the results of most major engines as a single searchable page without having to click that annoying "Next 10 Hits" arrow, allowing a keyword search on literally hundreds of news stories at a site such as NewsIndex.

GeoCities founder David Bohnett just bought a sizable stake in QuickBrowse, so the technology will likely find a permanent niche in the life of the web. But SpotOn, the Aussie look-alike, is certainly just as good and in some ways better, with its attractive interface and more detailed system allowing users to predefine and move between any sequence of web pages and store them as "tours" for future use.

It could be a useful enhancement to the sites of online companies wanting to compile web tours for employees or customers, and with its free 540Kb download, SpotOn might be just what some surfers need to catch the wave.

Postscript for those readers who e-mailed me regarding their own woes with GoHip (see last week's column, Spyware).

By hook, or more probably crook, you have downloaded a sneaky ActiveX control which has modified your registry and several components of your PC, including IE5, Netscape, Outlook and MS Office.

Average users would find it difficult to reverse these changes manually.

You may have noticed, for example, sudden inexplicable advertising pop-ups and banners appearing on your browser, and your e-mail may suddenly sport an unauthorised signature saying: "Click Here for Free Video."

The company not only plants the code itself, but is hawking it to others: "Tech-savvy consumers are bombarded with thousands of messages each day on the internet ... What if you could whisper in their ear; talk to them; know them? Now that's power. Real power!"

A "Malicious Code Alert" has been posted on the web, and the company's dematerialised principal, Justin Hirsch, is no longer answering calls or e-mail.

But before this happened, I managed to obtain a file called "remove.exe" which fixes the problem. Readers in trouble are welcome to e-mail me for a copy.

Related sites:

Meta-Crawler
SavvySearch
Inference Find
SpotOn
QuickBrowse
NewsIndex
GoHip
GoHip Free Video

BOOKMARKS

MOST ARTICULATE: Encarta Audio Dictionary
In swift response to the subscription-based incursion of the Oxford English Dictionary on to the Web, Bill Gates strikes back with a free online dictionary which talks, offering pronunciations in a real human voice. Available from April 17.

Advisory: yes, but in whose accent?

Related sites: