Find it fast: desktop search programs
Published: 23 Mar 2005
There's a hot new battle emerging between Google, Yahoo and Microsoft over localised (or desktop) search -- that is, finding specific files on your hard drive. If you're like most people, you stuff your hard drive with more digital photos and ripped music files every day. Maybe you toss them willy-nilly into your My Documents folder in Windows, or -- if you're really organised -- you slip them into My Music or My Photos. If you're in business, you probably also pack away documents and correspondence that, if lost, could cost you time and money to recover.
But while it's handy keep all of your files on your PC's hard drive, it's not quite so simple to find a specific one in the jumble. Before you know it, your PC has turned into a black hole where all important information goes to die. That's why, right now, a handful of companies are fighting to build the holy grail of desktop search: a program that will quickly and easily find your files no matter where you stashed them. Like search engines that scour the Internet and produce results in seconds, these new hard drive versions can instantly pull up references to files based on keywords, file types or designated folders. For example, these programs can hunt down your holiday photos as long as they have something searchable, such as the words 'summer 2004', somewhere in their name.
But not all of these desktop search engines are alike. We looked at eight, including Lookout, which was recently purchased by Microsoft. Search engine leader Google has released a beta of its own search engine tool and Microsoft has recently entered the fray, while AOL is expected to do so shortly. Some search only email correspondence, while others can find almost any file on your hard drive and also search the Internet. Some index your drive as you use it, constantly updating tables of data so that the search results are produced quickly. Others index on the fly, taking perhaps a few more seconds to produce specific results, but requiring less system resources. Most are free; one, X1, is not. Read our reviews for help in choosing the hard drive detective to dig out your data.
| Desktop search programs compared |
||||||||
Blinkx |
Copernic Desktop Search  |
Google Desktop Search (Beta)  |
HotBot |
MSN Desktop Search  |
Lookout |
X1 Search |
Yahoo Desktop Search (beta)  |
|
| Editors' Rating | 7.0 | 8.3 | n/a | 6.6 | 7.0 | 7.6 | 8.0 | n/a |
| Works within Outlook | no | no | no | no | yes | yes | no | yes |
| Works within Internet Explorer | no | no | yes | yes | yes | no | no | yes |
| Works standalone | yes | yes | no | no | no | no | yes | no |
| Indexes email | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| File viewer | limited | some files | no | no | no | no | yes | yes |
| RSS | yes | no | no | yes | no | no | no | no |
| Indexes contents of attached files in email | limited | yes | yes | no | no | no | yes | yes |
| Price | free | free | free | free | free | free | $75 (~£42) | free |
Related articles
Yahoo Desktop Search (beta)
Preview Although it's still in public beta, we have great expectations for Yahoo Desktop Search, and we like the features we've seen so far. [23 Mar 2005]
Google Desktop Search Beta
Preview Google has joined the burgeoning desktop search market with a public beta. We've had a day or so to play with it -- here's our initial report. [15 Oct 2004]
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