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There's a hot new battle emerging between Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft over localized search, a.k.a. 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 organized--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: an app that will quickly, 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 apps can hunt down
your vacation 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 and AOL are expected to announce their own shortly. Some search
only e-mail 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 fewer 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.
| |
Blinkx |
Copernic |
Google |
HotBot |
MSN |
Lookout |
X1 |
Yahoo |
| Rating |
7.0 |
8.3 |
First Take |
6.6 |
7.0 |
7.6 |
8.0 |
First Take |
| Works within Outlook |
No |
No |
No |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
| Works within Internet Explorer |
No |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
No |
Yes |
| Works as a standalone |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
No |
No |
No |
Yes |
No |
| Indexes e-mail |
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 e-mail |
Limited |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
No |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
| Price |
Free |
Free |
Free |
Free |
Free |
Free |
$99 |
Free |
Read the CNET editor's take
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Start Doing More with Windows Mobile
7.0 out of 10
8.3 out of 10
6.6 out of 10
