A method of browsing the Internet in which a browser retrieves a web page for presentation to a user. While the web page is being presented, using one or more background threads, the web page is parsed for a set of links to a set of linked web pages and that set of linked pages are retrieved. The set of linked pages is parsed for criteria set by the user. In response to finding the criteria on one or more of the linked pages, the presentation of the first page is changed to indicate the presence of the criteria on respective linked page. The linked pages may be located on the Internet or on local database on a standalone machine for browsing off-line.