This too can have ill effects for the original content creator, for instance when content scrapers rank above the webmaster’s original content or reputation is at stake.

Search engines ask webmasters to file DMCA requests to take down copied contents, but this requires extensive research. While it is possible to use the search engines for that, for instance by searching for article titles or the first paragraph, it is often better to use specialized tools for the job.

Desktop Plagiarism Checker offers to search on Google, Bing, Yahoo, Google Scholar or Google Books for text queries or documents. A free account is required before the program can be used.

Just paste text into one of the two tabs in the program and select one of the available search engines to search for duplicate content on the Internet. It is alternatively possible to load a text file into the program (supported are txt, htm, doc, pdf, rtf or odt) to search for the file’s contents instead.

A click on check duplicate content runs the search query and displays the results in a new program window. The number of hits, the query and domains found to contain the query are listed here in a table. Each sentence is analyzed and displayed separately in the results window.

The query itself links to the results page of the selected search engine. Only the root domain name is displayed in the results window. This is a problem as deep links are needed when filing DMCA requests. Results can be exported as pdf documents for safekeeping or further processing.

Checking online for duplicate content is only one of the ways the program can be used. Teachers can use it to check if students have copied parts or all of their essays and work from other sources.

The program lacks several features that would improve it further. This includes a full url listing of sites where the entered query has been found on, the ability to file DMCA requests directly from the program interface, and options to email the webmaster or the hosters abuse department are just a few that come to mind right away.

Desktop Plagiarism Checker can be downloaded from the developer website. The very same plagiarism checks can be run directly on the website. Guests see only limited results, registered users all details.

The user has to create an account with the service to be able to log into the software. Once logged in it is possible to add documents, the software is able to work with the formats txt, doc, rtf and html – and compare these documents against local and Internet resources.

Local resources can be selected by adding folders to the plagiarism checker. The contents of the folders will be analyzed. It is possible to submit the contents to an online database by clicking on the Publish button. This is however not a requirement. The benefit of publishing the data is that documents scanned by other users will be compared to those documents. The process is rather unclear as there are no information about the data that will be submitted in that process.

Searching the Internet for similarities to documents that have been added in the first step is the last option of the plagiarism checker Viper. It is again unclear how and where the search is performed. Results will be shown in the end. Documents that have been discovered in the process will be shown with ratings to make it easier for the user to identify how similar they are to the original documents. Reports can be saved in the end to archive the results.

The number one reason to use Viper is probably to check local documents against other local documents as this is the only transparent process of the plagiarism scanner. Internet search could probably also be conducted by simply entering a few sentences of a document into a search engine (don’t forget the “”).

Bloggers can use the information generated by CopyGator to find out which blogs are publishing articles based on their work without having to perform manual searches on Google or blog search engines like Technorati.

CopyGator provides a few ways of submitting a new RSS feed to the service. Webmasters can add their RSS feed url manually, add the site to the list of sites that get pinged whenever a new blog post is published or add a badge to their website that points to the CopyGator service.

It takes a while before the feed will be processed by the service. Webmasters who want to know if and how their posts are quoted or republished find in CopyGator the means to do so effectively.