Microsoft, search, and the desktop

Steve Lohr at the NYT reports on Microsoft's plans for search, integration into the desktop and Office applications:

Internet search, according to Microsoft, will increasingly become seamlessly integrated into the Windows desktop operating system, Office productivity software, cellphones powered by Windows, and Xbox video games.

"Search will not be a destination, but it will become a utility" that is more and more "woven into the fabric of all kinds of computing experiences," said Kevin Johnson, co-president of Microsoft's platforms and services division.

More detail and the full context is available from the transcript of one of the sessions of Microsoft's analyst day. I particularly like this additional snippet: "It's not just about search, it's about being able to find, ... share, and use the information that you have."

See also my previous post, "Using the desktop to improve search", where I said, "Is it really natural to go to a web browser to find information? Or should information be readily available from the desktop and sensitive to the context of your current task?"