If you are an avid user of social networks or if you want to monitor the hive mind for news about, say, a brand, a sports team or a celebrity, you know it can be hard to keep up across the different networks. Here’s a solution.

48ers is a new search engine in public beta. It lets you search Twitter, Facebook, Google Buzz, Digg, and Delicious all at once. All you do is enter the search term and hit Search. By default, results from all five networks are displayed. The search results are entire entries (tweets, updates etc). A little logo next to each result lets you know the source. If you want to see the results for each network separately, you can filter the results from a menu on the left.

There is no RSS, but a button to share search results with friends through a large number of channels.

I am particularly happy that Delicious is included among the sources. For years, it has continued to be my most indesposable web tool, not only for storing bookmarks, but for finding vetted web resources and sharing them with others.

(In case you are wondering: The name 48ers refers to the pioneers of the California gold rush.)