Golden Retriever Reviews

Golden Retriever, by N-LITER Inc., a toolbar that downloads to Internet Explorer, allows users to search for and collect online information and then add notes to or highlight the desired Web pages. The software then automatically copies the Web page contents to the user's hard drive. When the online researcher wants to retrieve the information, Golden Retriever "fetches" the saved page(s), complete with the personal annotations. Highlighted pages also can be e-mailed, allowing the user to share the results of the research or to forward the information to another computer. Included: Teacher comments about the Golden Retriever.

Detailed ED-u-rate chart

Recently, Education World asked our reviewers, all teachers or educational technology specialists, to check out Golden Retriever, using it in their classrooms and in their professional and personal lives. Reviewers were asked to use Golden Retriever for a period of at least one month, note specific strengths, weaknesses, and/or quirks of the program, record their personal observations -- both positive and negative -- and rate various qualities of the software on a scale of 0-4.

The results are in -- and this is what our reviewers had to say!

Click here to see educators' reviews of other products including Kidspiration, Timeliner, Graph Master, Adobe Photoshop, NetSupport School, NetOpSchool, FlashMaster, the Pasco Science Probe, and more!

OVERALL COMMENTS

I have been conducting teacher training in Kidspiration and Inspiration. While preparing for those training sessions, I used Golden Retriever to bookmark and annotate online tutorials and templates for the teachers. During the training sessions themselves, I found the program to be helpful to bring teachers to these sites. I also used the highlighter and notepad to assist me in my discussions. Golden Retriever saved me a great deal of preparation time.

I was quite pleased with Golden Retriever and will continue to use it.

One addition to the program I would like to have would be a text rollover when using the icons. Although the "doggie" icons are cute, they have no relation to the tools' uses. I needed to refer to the documentation several times before I memorized the meaning of each icon. It would have been easier, for example, if I could have rolled the cursor over the fire hydrant and have the word highlighter appear.

I have used Golden Retriever for student instruction, teacher training, and professional presentations. I also demonstrated the software for our district software committee, which is looking at a variety of software to purchase for the next school year.

I use Golden Retriever extensively for class preparation and research; the program is very beneficial to me. My use of this program decreases the amount of time I spend on the Internet and helps me organize my Internet resources for various projects in which I'm involved. Although, I work in both Windows and Mac, I am a Mac fan and wish the program could also be used on a Mac computer.

I definitely recommend this program to my students and colleagues. It's very easy to use and very helpful for Internet research.

I liked being able to highlight items on a saved page and being able to add my own notes to online snapshots, and so on.

I definitely recommend Golden Retriever to other tech coordinators, teachers, and administrators. The ease of use, user friendliness, and detailed instructions with pictures are all big plusses for me.

Thanks for the opportunity to test this program. I love it and use it all the time. I've recommended it to others who have purchased it; they love it as well!

Go to the detailed ED-u-rate chart.

DOWNLOAD/ INSTALLATION COMMENTS

Instructions provided were clear and easy to follow. I did not encounter any difficulties.

This program loaded very fast and extremely easily. I wish all programs were this simple to download and install!

Golden Retriever was fairly easy to install. I was in a hurry and overlooked the part about having to restart all open browsers in order to use Golden Retriever. Perhaps the words Please Note could be placed above that section and the word Restart bolded to assure that the user knows that.

Go to the detailed ED-u-rate chart.

USABILITY COMMENTS

Although documentation was very clear, I needed to refer to it several times when using the program. As with any program, practice makes perfect. I would not have my elementary students (K-4) work with this program; middle- and high school students would be my targeted users.

The program didn't interfere at all with normal computer operations.

I was pleased to find all my searches saved chronologically and ready for me to use with one click.

The program has a clear interface. The toolbar is always visible and ready for use.

I didn't even know Golden Retriever was on my computer during normal use.

Golden Retriever was easy to use and the documentation was clear. It did take me a while to figure out where to find the documentation, but once I clicked Help, it was a breeze.

The User Manual documentation was clear and accurate. I printed a copy and used it as I worked within the program. The only problem I encountered was that some of the text was cut off when I printed it. This program is very usable and easy for students to use as they work on research projects.

Go to the detailed ED-u-rate chart.

PERFORMANCE COMMENTS

The program was very reliable; I didn't encounter any errors while using it.

It was quite amazing to see all my searches saved without directing the program to do so. Every search automatically saved to the vault.

I had zero problems using this program. I wish I'd had it a month earlier when I was preparing a presentation.

This is such a simple and easy to use program, students in fifth grade and above easily can handle it.

I didn't encounter any problems working with this program.

Go to the detailed ED-u-rate chart.

USEFULNESS COMMENTS

Golden Retriever is truly a teacher time saver. There is no longer a need to bookmark and organize sites saved. You just search the vault quickly to find favorites.

After you read the documentation and learn how it works, this program is a huge timesaver. It's reliable and easy to use and I was able to capture sites for a variety of uses.

Golden Retriever is very usable for both teachers and students. The program is easy to use and an excellent tool for research.

Golden Retriever has everything necessary for Internet research on one convenient toolbar. I like the Quick Search feature and the use of a drop down menu to access the most popular search engines. Organizing Web pages and accessing them is easy with the Vault feature.

I like the fact that Golden Retriever stores Web pages in a data file on the hard drive, so it's not necessary to be on the Internet to access them.

The Search History feature is helpful because it remembers previous searches, regardless of the search engine used. The ReSearch2 engine can find any information -- whether it's in the body of the Web page, in a highlighted section, or in a note.

Because I'm in a university environment and work on many collaborative projects, being able to e-mail a Web page with highlights and my added notes to colleagues is very helpful. I like the fact that they do not have to have Golden Retriever themselves to view my highlights and notes.

Go to the detailed ED-u-rate chart.

SUPPORT COMMENTS

The help tool is always available and easily accessed. However, when I went to "Feedback and Questions," I clicked "Go to Feedback Form" to ask a question and was unsuccessful. I kept getting a message stating: "Your session has expired. You must re-login to continue." The FAQ section was very helpful and answered my questions. The helpful tips also were good.

Help support was available through e-mail, but all my questions were answered by the manual and the FAQs.

The online help is easy to access when I have questions while using the program.

Education World®
Copyright © 2003 Education World