There was a time before search engines dominated how we browse the Internet. Only a few years ago there used to be magazines full of web URLs. Really. Magazines full of information about interesting websites. These days have gone as people simply rely on a search engine to give them the information they require.

You could argue that it’s the larger companies that dictate how we find their sites. They have the power, clout and know-how to get their sites at the top of search engine results. This means that when a user searches for a particular theme, they get the same sites over and over again. Smaller sites, blogs and so on tend to appear on search results page four and onwards.

We need to go back to how we used to surf the Internet and this involved finding interesting sites with a particular theme and sharing this information with other users. Follow a website link and then keep on following the links, adding the new sites to your bookmarks as you browse. Share that information with other users who share your interests.

The Mac-based Little Snapper, from the company behind the superb Rapidweaver, have developed a tool that enables you to collate websites in a visual manner. If you find an interesting site, or a page within a website, LittleSnapper will grab this as an image and store. The design is superb and you can categorise your sites so can quickly refer to sites you’ve collected regarding a favourite movie, as an example.

Sharing your collected sites is made easy within Little Snapper. When you buy the application you’ll get a free account at the online QuickSnapper which is a portal you can use to share your sites with other web users. Of course, you can use other external resources too, such as Flickr or even your own web hosting to share your collected sites.

LittleSnapper 1.5 is a big new release along with a new capture engine, the ability to grab areas, tagging, Quick Look support and much more.