Parallel Search lets you type in a query once, and search it across multiple search engines in parallel, and displays the results in a grid of frames obtained from different search engines all at once. The grid can consist of columns and rows, the number of which you can control from the toolbar. You can then view the initial search results in this grid of split browser frames. After that, you can keep browsing in the applications simple browser, or open the links in your favorite web browser.
You can use the pre-defined list of search engines such as Google, Bing, Duck Duck Go, Ecosa, Yahoo and Yandex, exclude or remove unwanted ones and even add your own such as Reddit. We have added the AI-powered You.com with GPT capabilities for you.
You can also use it to simply browse multiple websites in one window in a grid of columns, rows or both.
Why Parallel Search?
Some search engines are more popular than others, but no single one of them is perfect (maybe except the AI-powered You.com which has recently been added as an option). When you cant find something youre looking for using one search engine, there is always a chance of finding it using another, but manually searching in others is very time-consuming. Sometimes you get a similar set of results on the first page of each search engine, sometimes you dont. The problem is you never know if or when. Ozars Parallel Search solves this problem by searching your terms through the engines defined in your preferences.
Are you a techie?
Because even a wide-spread search engine such as Google excludes one or more specific results for something niche you suppose to find on a site like StackOverflow, while an alternative search engine will show it in its results. Tired of manually checking every other search engine? Let Parallel Search do it for you.
Doing SEO?
You can quickly check how well do certain search terms / keywords perform on different search engines - specifically the ones you specify in the apps preferences.
System requirements for Parallel Search
- macOS 10.13 or later (macOS 12 Monterey recommended)
Parallel Search will run on macOS versions as early as High Sierra 10.13 and as new as macOS 12 Monterey or later.
Known Limitations
Printing
Printing is only available on macOS Big Sur or later. You can spool the selected web frame to your connected printer or save as the PDF. You can only print the selected webpage frame / pane at a time. Setting header and footer information is not possible.
Using Parallel Search as an alternative web browser
While you can certainly do basic web surfing visiting multiple websites in the same window, Ozars Parallel Search was never intended to replace a popular web browser, but was designed as a web search utility. It lacks many features a modern web browser has, and it does not aim to compete with browsers in todays market either.
AI-powered You.com
Clicking links in a You.com browser pane will not open search results in an external browser window (the browser you set as default in System Settings) even if you had this as a preference in Parallel Search settings. This is due to you.coms strict JavaScript which cannot be disabled otherwise you.com does not work at all.
