Usenet Search

Binsearch Review

Binsearch Overview

Usenet servers have an abundance of content, good and bad. With the fair share of spam and corrupted files, it can be difficult to narrow down to what you are looking for. That is why it is vital to use a good indexer.

Binsearch is one of the binary Usenet search engines you will often hear of. Its developers first created this engine for personal use but soon released it on a public domain to share their accomplishments.

What makes it better is that the platform is completely free to use. If you want to use some of the quirky features, such as “watch release”, you will want to register. However, for the basic search and browse, you don’t have to.

For a free service, we are highly impressed with the light and fast solution Binsearch has been able to provide for the Usenet community.

Binsearch: The Things We Like

What immediately strikes us when browsing their website is the simple, clean and bright interface. Binsearch doesn’t use any fancy graphics but still manages to have a pleasing minimalist look. Its attention is focused entirely on providing its users with a fast interface to search and browse Usenet.

Binsearch provides a platform for all types of search and browsing. If you already know what binary you are looking for, you can use the basic search bar or the advanced search bar.

The basic search bar allows to search content by indicated select keywords, number of results per page and maximum age of posts. The result is automatically sorted with the most recent posts.

The advanced search bar allows for a more sophisticated search. On top of the selections of the basic search bar, you can indicate a specific Newsgroup, the sorting method, and much more.Binsearch uses an algorithm called stemming to branch your search queries into all keywords variations. For example, if you search “cat”, you will see search results with strings such as cat, cats, catlike, and catty.Alternatively, you can also simply browse newgroups and see what catches your eye.Binsearch is currently affiliated with around 3100 Newsgroups. Each Newsgroup has its own retention days, varying anywhere between 100 to 4000 days. To check out where your favorite Newsgroup stands, check out their table here.Another benefit of Binsearch is its high-security protocol. Their search is SSL encrypted, which ensures that your search remains private and protected.Binsearch is convenient, easy to use and absolutely free. The developers run this platform completely on advertisements. They even redirect all donations offers towards charities.

What We Don't Like about Binsearch

Binsearch is a popular choice, but like any free indexer, it has its limitations.

A basic search will return parts of files. This can be confusing and cumbersome to some as you need to check all single files before selecting “Create NZB”. Hence we recommend using the advanced search to select the “only show collections” option. This will return NZBs that already contains grouping of parts of a file.

Binsearch also doesn’t work well with third-party app integration. Their API has often been considered as unreliable. If this is a concern for you, we would suggest looking into Newznab based indexing option.

Bottom Line

With its fast interface, sophisticated filters and high-security protocol, we think Binsearch is a great choice for an Indexer. It has been a popular choice for many years and it is a good place to start if you are new to Usenet.

Since it is a free service, you will find a couple of limitations. As you become more adept with Usenet, we would suggest you to consider looking into some of the features offered by the paid indexers.