This is one of those sites you never really think about until you use it. Then, suddenly, you can’t live without it.

Joongel calls itself "Internet, the Easy Way." In reality, it’s a way to search a number of the most popular sites in any given category, and to do a lot of web-scouring all in one place.

When you search Joongel, you specify two things: the query (whatever you’re searching for) and the category (you choose from a drop-down menu). Once you click "search" you get results from 10 of the most highly regarded sites within the category you chose.

For instance: let’s say you’re searching videos for monkeys. Maybe you just love videos of monkeys. Type "Monkeys" into the bar, select "Videos" from the Category list, and hit search. You get to choose between videos about monkeys, and how-to monkey videos. (I’m not sure what those are…)

Joongel then loads searches for YouTube, AOL Video, MySpace, Yahoo Video, Google Video, MSN Video, Dailymotion, Veoh, Metacafe, and Blinkx. With one click, you can switch between all the different sites and find all the videos about monkeys that you could ever want or need.

The categories are plentiful (everything from Shopping to Health to Q&A), the sites are smartly chosen, and the site generally works really well. I’m starting to use it as a research tool, because it allows me to search a bunch of different places all at once, and not have to deal with opening and closing tabs, navigating between engines, and all the other insanity.

One other nice touch- if you choose "general search" as the category for the search, you get a basic Google search returned to you. It’s a small thing, and definitely not what Joongel is for, but it’s a nice feature.

For Firefox and Internet Explorer users, Joongel provides plugins for the search bar. What this means is that you can add a shortcut to a Joongel search in a given category, and search there in one click.

Joongel is very Web 2.0, giving heavy emphasis to user-based sites. They’re crowdsourcing your search results, and it makes your  searches both more focused and more fruitful.