Apple details plans to Spotlight desktop search

TalkBack 19 of 21:

Next »

« Previous

• Thread View
• Flat View

Let get back on topic...

...which is desktop searching.

What strikes me odd is why everyone considers this a new thing. Apple has been providing combined desktop and Internet search capabilities since MacOS 8.6 when it introduced Sherlock. It had only two problems, it was never properly integrated into Finder user interface and the overnight indexing routine was slow. The latter was likely due to the slower CPUs being used at the time.

Actually, this is not Microsoft's first stab at integrating the desktop and the Internet. Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer are very much the same. And since Windows 2000, a user has been able to do text searches of at least MS file types. However, unless Index Server has been implemented it uses a scan approach instead of keyword indexes, so it can be very slow.

What is truly impressive about Google Desktop Search is how simple Google made it. First of all, it's only a 400K install. When was the last time anyone distributed a 400K piece of software? And it works very well using IE or whatever the PC's default browser happens to be. And I know hear Google is planning a Macintosh version of this nifty little utility. No doubt a Linux version will soon follow.

I think the message from Google is Microsoft, Apple, and apparently everyone else are "making much ado about nothing."

I also think Mozilla is a another company/organization to watch here. First of all, Firefox could easily integrate with Google Desktop Search by someone simply developing a search plug-in. And there are Firefox extensions under way to provide basic, OS-independent file management capabilities within the browser.

So it seems that desktop search is simply another round of the browser wars. Microsoft destroyed Netscape because it feared the web would replace Windows as the world's preferred user environment. Though Microsoft could not actually stop the trend, it figured at the very least its own browser and its supporting semi-proprietary technologies would the gatway to the web. And this worked for several years.

Two things then happened. First, Microsoft got complacent and stopped significant development of IE, allowing the browser to become both antiquated and a security problem. Second, the now infamous anti-trust trials in the U.S. and E.U. have made it much more difficult for MS to simply eliminate competition.

So we now see a new generation of companies such as Google and Mozilla taking up the good fight. It's for this reason that desktop search is interesting.

Posted by: joshdcohen@...   Posted on: 11/12/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

Alert moderator to an offensive message

Subscribe to this discussion via Email or RSS

SponsoredWhite Papers, Webcasts, and Downloads

• Three Steps You Need to Know to Stop Data Loss Varonis Sensitive data exposed to misuse or loss... it is the stuff of nightmares ... Download Now
• The Impact of Virtualization Software on Operating Environments VMware Today's use of virtualization technology allows IT professionals to ... Download Now
• Building the Virtualized Enterprise with VMware Infrastructure VMware VMware virtualization software has been adopted by over 120,000 enterprise ... Download Now