I've tried many tools to support researching on the Web and I've finally found one that looks very much like it does everything I need. The tool is Onfolio from the company Onfolio (see links below).

What makes Onfolio different from other tools I have used is that it is very easy to use, provides several ways of capturing and organizing research data, and is well integrated into the browser.

Onfolio creates a new browser explorer bar (that's the optional bar down the left hand side of the browser window) that displays a hierarchical view of your named collections of saved Web content. In a separate window, it lists the items in the currently selected collection.

When you find a Web page you want to keep track of, you can select specific content and save that as a "Snippet." Alternatively, you can save the entire page either as a link or by downloading a copy of the page (Onfolio is smart enough to save all related style sheets, images, and other components to ensure that the page's look-and-feel can be reproduced).

You can flag saved items to denote importance, add comments, add author and copyright details, add keywords, and create custom fields for searching or categorizing.

A feature of Onfolio that is really useful is the ability to share and publish your research. You can send single or multiple items as links, attachments, or as a collection. Alternatively, with the Onfolio Publisher utility that is part of the Onfolio Professional Edition you can create reports and publish them as Web pages to a local drive or by FTP to a remote server, and automatically create an RSS feed.

The minimum configuration required to run Onfolio is a Pentium III or greater with 128M byte RAM running Windows XP, 2000 or 2003 with Internet Explorer 5.5 or later and is priced at $29.95 for the Standard Edition, and $79.95 for the Professional Edition.

This is a great tool - highly recommended.

Mark Gibbs is a consultant, author, journalist, columnist and blogger.