Which Desktop Search Have You Used? Google, MSN, Yahoo...

[jedipi 0]

have you ever used Desktop search tools?Which one is your faviour?have you ever used Desktop search tools?Which one is your faviour?Which one use more resource?Which one is more accury?which one dose support more file format?

Notice from microscopic^earthling:

Posts merged.

Edited October 13, 2005 by HTML_Guru (see edit history)

[rapco 0]

I tried google desktop search... AND IT WAS VERY BAD!!!!That was in it's beta pahse.. but it brought me a lot of pc problems... i have lost faith in desktopo search software...The best advice you can get: "Be organized from getogo"..Put everything in specific folder, named after their content... use multilevel folder organization...This way you won't need a desktopo search software... you be more productive, and you'll get your tasks done faster...

[Aaron 0]

I just use the Find function.

[PC Astray 0]

I use Google Desktop Search and I don't have much to say about it, only that I prefer the built-in Search function in Windows XP since it seem to provide the results I'm looking for. I only use Google Desktop Search when Windows can't find the file I am looking for (one that I know exists but not sure where is it) but I can't really blame it probably because I disabled the Indexing Service. I compared it with MSN Desktop Search and of course, Google is far off better.

[thedevil 0]

I use the msn search... or the search embeded in the IE...and i feel they both sucks...i think kaaza might work better ...i have not tried it yet...

[saxsux 0]

Whilst GDS was in beta, I have to admit it was quite buggy.Now that Google have actually released it I think its great! I was really worried about the fact that it only searched IE history, but now Google have added Firefox intergration too.I love the way its so fast compared to windows' built in search. Because it keeps an up-to-date index, you get the results unbelievably quickly. Also, I think that the integration with the Google homepage is nice feature.

[d'vampress 0]

I'm using Yahoo DS, and I think it's the best so far. I couldn't believe it, but i always get the results that i'm looking for. well, not everytime, but most of the time. I'm happy with it.

[harriko 0]

i dont really have any desktop search engines. i dont really fancy having a big rubbish search bar in the way. so i have google in the browser as the home page.

[Mernokh 0]

I've tried a Desktop Search software only once, long time ago. Can't say I liked it. Not that it was crappy or anything; actually I remember it looked pretty decent. But I discovered that I don't really need it. In all the Operating Systems I used (and I used quite a bit), the built-in search capability was more than enough for me. Seriously, you either need to search for a certain filename or a string of text inside a text file. In both situation, even Windows's FIND does the job adequately. If you use Microsoft Office, there's an option called something like "System Index," that wades through all your files making a permanent database on your hard disk, which is used to quickly find the results you're looking for.Of course, I realize that not all people are satisified with the built-in search. Personally, I haven't tried it, but I have so much faith in Google that I'd like to hear if someone has used the official (non-Beta) version, and hear what they think about it.All the best,Mernokh

[hazeshow 0]

No, I've not yet tried any of these new search bars, the Windows search function is enough for me. Maybe search bars are fatser an better, but I don't trust this kind of software. I don't want my computer to be searched by Google.

[evought 0]

have you ever used Desktop search tools?

Which one is your faviour?

 

have you ever used Desktop search tools?

Which one is your faviour?

Which one use more resource?

Which one is more accury?

which one dose support more file format?

Notice from microscopic^earthling:

Posts merged.

1064296762[/snapback]

I use the Spotlight Search Engine built into Tiger (Mac OS X 10.4).

 

It has the advantage of being very quick. Like the old locate tool (somewhat obscure), it worked on a prebuilt index and therefore finds results very quickly. It sorts the results by type and relevance and is very easy to use. It pulls up web pages, email messages, files, entries in my outlining software, MP3s (by searching the ID3 tags) and so forth.

 

One downside so far is that it does not understand meta-data in image files. I have a large number of botanical sketches and I usually put species information and other things in the image comment fields. I would very much like a search for, for instance, "hederacea" to pull up images of Ivy-Leaved Morning Glory (Ipomoea hederacea) for instance, but it does not seem to be able to do that. It does seem to do this somewhat with photos stored in iPhoto, but not bare images. I get around this by putting the sketches in Notebook (Circus and Ponies) with the metadata in the Notebook fields. Spotlight pulls up the Notebook entry with a link to the sketches.

 

The Spotlight search returns results as you type the search text. Sometimes this is convenient, but other times it is distracting. I would like a preference to turn that feature off.

[Anthony_ 0]

i selected other because ive used aol desktop search

[HellFire121 0]

I have google desktop and all i can say it's useless, what's the point in having a search engine when i've got probably about 80% of my files organized. In the rare occasion when i need to find a file i just use the windows search. Google desktop opens 3 processes related to it and it uses about 10-15mb of memory overall.The 'gadgets' are nice but there is no point, the taskbar thing wastes space when all it displays is a button called 'gadgets'If you keep your files organized then there will be no need to use a desktop search engine.-HellFire