I use eix for searching portage. Emerge eix then replace your crontab "emerge --sync" line with "eix-sync" and away you go. It doesn't help selecting/installing, but since it indexes portage makes searching very fast.
eix -Icu # list all installed packages that have available updates /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
