- I'm still not convinced all this rush for desktop search delivers consumers what they really want or need. Don the dad probably could find that letter he wrote to Susie's teacher in the "My Documents" folder; no search tool required. A media player manages his music just fine. Sure, he needs help finding his photos, but those search capabilities aren't here yet. Right now, I'm convinced desktop search's real value is e-mail ...
Why doesn't MSN Desktop Search search web history? I want to search every website I've ever seen. Very useful when I know I saw something on the web before but can't remember where. This is where desktop search needs to go to bring real value. I should be able to search and easily find again anything I ever saw on my computer before.
Google Desktop Search does search browsing history (unfortunately only for IE), and Microsoft's Stuff I've Seen project suggests we'll be seeing steps in this direction from MSN soon too.
See also my earlier posts, "Yahoo desktop search" and "Seruku: Search what you've seen".
3 comments:
Greg, I agree on the generic desktop search argument, but email search is compelling: Lookout (the basis of MSN Outlook search) changed the way I work for the better (much, much better).
Now, as far as web history goes, there's tons of very interesting stuff that can be done there, esp. if you have a personalization engine/database handy :-) Have you looked at an IE/Firefox plug-in that would trail the user and log usage back to Findory? I've toyed with the idea for memigo but I never had the time or resources to attempt it...
Hi, Costas! Good to hear from you!
I've heard a lot of people say they like Lookout. Did you see this post I had on them? Interesting that Lookout uses the open source Lucene search engine.
Interesting idea you have, but I'm not sure the world needs yet another toolbar. Ever see this screenshot of a guy who went nuts installing toolbars?
Hi, Dan. You make some good points.
I agree that enterprise search is a huge market, but I think that requires a different product than the free desktop search applications offered by Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask Jeeves, and AOL.
I'm questioning the value of desktop search products to individual desktop PC users. Ask yourself, does grandma need a new desktop search application? Or would she just make do with the default Windows file search?
I'm not questioning the value of enterprise search. But I think that's a different space.
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