DEVONagent Pro overview

DEVONagent Pro helps you search more efficiently on the web. It searches multiple sources, frees you from hunting for the really relevant results, and gives you power tools for your research.

Features

Your personal meta search engine - DEVONagent Pro is not a simple Google interface. It knows how to talk to search engines, and how to squeeze the best out of them.DEVONagent connects to as many search engines as you want, collects the data, and weeds out the junk that managed to slip through. It also scans your favorite websites and notifies you when it finds something that matches your query. It can even do all of this while you're sleeping; the results will be ready before you pour your first cup of coffee.
Get the good stuff, skip the junk - DEVONagent Pro is all about filtering what you don't want and giving you the best tools to find more of what you really want. DEVONagent Pro doesn't simply trust the search engines. It filters all returned results again, allowing you to use advanced Boolean operators, proximity operators, and wildcards of unlimited complexity, something no single search engine allows you to do. DEVONagent's "scanners" can even find thumbnail galleries or linked PDF or Office documents for you. When you've found what you're looking but want a little more detail, the unique See Also list contains related pages from elsewhere in the search results, online and even from DEVONthink Pro.
The information you want, the way you want - Every research tasks is different. DEVONagent Pro supports this with many ways to list, read, even explore your data. View the results as a list or as a smart text summary, and explore them with the topics map. Unread results are marked with a blue dot, just like in Apple Mail, so that you don't miss the one important piece of information you're looking for. Finally, for viewing Web pages there's DEVONagent Pro's specialized Web browser. Extract images, RSS feeds, links, email addresses, even linked documents with a single click and save them for reference or reuse.
Save your research and come back later - Research is not only about finding, it's about collecting data, sharing it, and using it to create something meaningful. DEVONagent Pro exports your filtered and trimmed-to-the-max research results in a variety of formats, from a simple list of bookmarks to comprehensive RTF digests and PDF reports. The built-in, searchable archive keeps them for later reference, or you can send your results to DEVONthink. Finally, you can save your search and continue later on, or even share it with others via email.
How DEVONagent Pro can help your research:

Researchers: Stay up-to-date on your subject with scheduled searches. Search through specialized online databases, scan important Web sites, and get smart summaries. Extract the key facts using DEVONagent Pro's research-centric Web browser.
Students and educators: Find better course materials faster, with DEVONagent Pro weed out the chaff. Cite references for your papers and extract images and lists of links with a single click. Save interesting results in DEVONagent's archive or in DEVONthink.
Journalists: Keep an eye on as many other information sources as you like and dig deeper into the subject you are writing about. Use the smart See Also function to learn more about the article you're reading. Save a search and return to it later if you get interrupted.
Lawyers: Search LexisWeb and FindLaw efficiently with advanced Boolean operations, and use See Also to find related data with a single click. Export comprehensive reports, or save the results for future reference in DEVONagent's archive or in DEVONthink.
Power users: Use DEVONagent Pro's specialized and easily automated browser to find and collect information and file it in DEVONthink. The object drawer and extensive AppleScript, JavaScript, and Automator support make it the #1 browser for DEVONthink users and enthusiasts.

What's new in version 3.11.11

This maintenance release includes many updates to plugins and search sets. These include several news outlets, e.g., Reuters, the PubMed site, the Latest Software search set, and even the plugin for our DEVONthink Server edition. Unfortunately, due to underlying changes on some sites, we had to remove some, notably Google-related ones. However, we now use multiple search engines for certain features, e.g., for the See Also inspector, to help ensure good results. Beyond that, we made many fixes and improvements to make our application more reliable and efficient.

New

Added Send anonymized analytics data to the Update settings. See our company's Privacy Policy page for more information on the data we may send.

Improved

Plugins updated: Medical > PubMed, Apple > MacUpdate, BBC News, RocketNews, Reuters, References > Philosophy, and World News Network.
The updated Web plugin improves support for Bing and now also uses Brave and Ecosia. We no longer use Google. (See the Removed section below.) We also improved filtering of Bing and Ecosia results.
We improved the compatibility of the DEVONthink Server plugin when using a self-signed certificate and also revised the description in the Window > Plugins & Scanners window.
We updated the Marketing, Mac > Latest News, and Latest Software search sets.
The See Also inspector in DEVONagent Pro browser windows now uses multiple search engines to improve reliability.
We improved the appearance of browser tab preview popovers in macOS Sequoia and later.
We made various cosmetic improvements to the user interface, e.g., title bar, text colors, and the Go > Workspaces > Edit panel.
The Search > Max. Download Size setting now defaults to 2048 KB.
We improved HTML parsing and conversion, e.g., while crawling pages.
Searching web pages added to the Sites tab of a search set or using the EngineSite key in plugins now uses multiple search engines.
We improved link filtering, especially from Brave Search results.
To prevent DEVONagent Pro from being detected as "unusual activity", we employ better dynamic throttling on Bing and Brave searches.
A revised user-agent improves compatibility with Bloomberg feeds.
You can now control the timeout of the download URL and download markdown/json from AppleScript commands more precisely with standard with timeout of x seconds… end timeout handlers.

Fixed

In rare cases, the context menu in web views could crash on macOS 15. Fixed.
Closing the preferences while a shortcut control was active could crash the application. Fixed.
On macOS Sequoia and later, the font displayed inconsistently in the popup menu of a search window's search field. Fixed.
In the Search Sets window, selected sets couldn't be renamed by clicking on them. Fixed.
The Web > Translate command could add an unnecessary request to the Download Manager. Fixed.
Pressing ⌃↩ didn't display the context menu reliably and could change the current selection. Fixed.
When using a weekly interval in a scheduled search set, the message about the next run reported the day before the chosen day, e.g., showing "Tuesday" when "Wednesday" was chosen. Fixed.
If the Download Manager had automatic purging disabled, removing downloaded items would incorrectly remove the downloaded files too. Fixed.
WebKit could crash when rendering the Consent Manager and Microsoft Clarity web pages. Fixed.
RSS and Atom feed articles only used the first listed author. Fixed.
The MacUpdate keywords search didn't work in browser windows. Fixed.
The Scripts > More Scripts command didn't select the Extras tab in the Support Assistant when running in French or German. Fixed.
The encoding parameter of the download markup from AppleScript command incorrectly listed ISO-Latin-1. The default is UTF-8. Fixed.
The registration panel didn't immediately report success or failure after the trial period expired. Fixed.

Removed

Due to the use of JavaScript to present search results and blocking third-party access, we removed: Google News, Google (PDF), Images & Video > Google Video and YouTube, Blogs > Google Blog Search, Patents > Google Patents, and US Patent Office.

View older DEVONagent Pro versions

4.5

(69 Reviews of DEVONagent Pro)

Comments
User Ratings

Gakesmith

Oct 22 2024

3.11.8

5.0

Version: 3.11.8

I have used this for years for one purpose: to find recipes. It focuses the search just as you would want. I'm sure it would do the same if you had it set for other searches.

anonymous-squirrel

Feb 9 2018

3.10

Version: 3.10

DEVONagent Pro is an excellent search engine and browser, for doing in-depth research, especially when combined with DEVONthink Pro Office. My only complaint is that DEVONagent Pro doesn’t get updated very often (which makes me wonder about security). Otherwise it's great.

Levelbest

May 18 2017

3.9.6

0.0

Version: 3.9.6

This company has terrible customer service. They offer great software but it is also highly complex. You are going to spend a lot of time in the manuals and asking dumb questions on their forums. But beware, the forums allow far too much “RTFM” type commentaries, “what’s wrong with you”, etc. And that’s from the moderators and the forum experts. I have some genuine learning disabilities as the result of injuries suffered in service to my country (disabled vet). I was really hoping that many of Devon’s products would be very helpful for those of us who struggle to organize information on a daily basis. Unfortunately, Devon people do not suffer fools gladly and I have been suddenly and permanently banned from their forums. Why? No explanation was given after I asked repeatedly. Apparently it was for complaining to Devon customer service about how I was getting treated in the forums. To add insult to injury, Devons web site boasts about how they won’t bury problems by closing tickets before they are through and how much they value fairness. Don't you believe it. None of these are values that I have seen. My ticket on this issue was closed prematurely and their head guy refused to provide any justification for their actions. Apparently asking too many questions about good netiquette on their forums will get you banned. I can't see using such a complex and important piece of software (it’s about managing all the files on your Mac), and not being able to ask questions about it on an active user forum. Devon makes great software. I have no argument with that. I have a license for DevonThink Professional Office, DevonAgent, and some others. But learning something with such complex capabilities, having learning challenges of my own, and having such a non user friendly forum, just got to be too much. I have been trying to use Devon products for a couple of years now. Sadly, I probably will not continue with this company barring a sharp reversal in their way of treating customers. Why pay for abuse? Your mileage may vary. I have rated this software as low as it can go, not because it isn't really smart software but because if you can't get help using it or worse, you are ridiculed and then banned, then why recommend this brand to others? Without ongoing access to good customer service through the user base (forums), my licenses are now pretty much useless. And these software titles from Devon, are not cheap.

goggles

Feb 27 2012

3.1.1

Version: 3.1.1

It finds everything I need, and things I didn't know I needed, there is a small learning curve but once you get used to it, you can't go without it, great companion to DevonThink. I use DevonAgent Pro with DevonThink Pro Office, using these 2 apps together, you can find a needle in 1 million hay stacks.