As you know, players all around the globe use different programms to search multyplayer servers, to see how many players play on them, what players are playing, and join them on the same server. You can make friendhip with other gamers, chat with them, join them in games, using the "GameBrowsers".(and saying goodbye to the game internal browsers) There are different programms that you may use:
XFire
http://www.xfire.com/
HLSW:
http://hlsw.net/?page=download&category=hlsw
Qtracker:
official site : http://www.qtracker.com/
freeware site : http://www.qtracker.com/download-sections.php?section=0,2,13
GameSpyArcade
http://www.gamespyarcade.com/
AllSeeingEye: : maybe the most used game browser ever, went out of use, leaving his place to the other new game browsers. It seems it's closed, however i want to post it too, coz it was really great for many players:
1............... http://download.cnet.com/3001-18541_4-10197470.html?spi=1fb371c82067016656bf917963b78f7c
2............... http://www.udpsoft.com/eye/doc.html
P.S We could try to decide what's better, but different people may have different opinions...it's up to you to decide what game browser choose (think of what browsers your friends use and so on.
If any of those links doesn't work, just search on google the browsers names. (i hope you understood that with game browsers you don't have to enter in a game, u use it like any other program)