scuzzman Posted May 16, 2005 Report Share Posted May 16, 2005 LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp., the world's largest maker of software, on Sunday released the finalized version of its desktop search tool, taking aim at Google Inc. and other rivals in the increasingly competitive search market. The MSN Search Toolbar, which was introduced on a trial basis five months ago, provides a way to search for e-mail, documents and other data stored on hard drives much more quickly and efficiently than the "Find" function found in Windows. Google, which became the Web's top search engine after its debut in 1998, was the first major search company to roll out a test version. Search rival Yahoo Inc. released its test, or beta, desktop search tool in January.Original story here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb Posted May 16, 2005 Report Share Posted May 16, 2005 Interesting! I wonder how this compares with the Google Desktop Search? I have Google since its initial beta version, and I am very happy with it. Except that it doesn't index too many file types without additional add-ins. MSN seems to include lots of filetypes, but I'm a bit reluctant to install a second desktop search.P.S. Here is the correct download link - the Reuters article didn't quite get it right: http://desktop.msn.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scuzzman Posted May 16, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 16, 2005 I'm kind of curious as to why I need to install another utility from the same company that "Find Files and Folders" should be doing in the first place? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb Posted May 16, 2005 Report Share Posted May 16, 2005 I'm kind of curious as to why I need to install another utility from the same company that "Find Files and Folders" should be doing in the first place?Well, it is really not quite the same. The Windows Find does a real-time search of documents (although there is some kind of indexing feature in Windows, which I have never turned on). A desktop search engine indexes all documents, and a search is then very quick.Microsoft is really quite new in this field, so I doubt that they will have anything better to offer than Google in the near future. But I am still curious about it, and I will perhaps test it sometime. I have a very large number of documents on my hard drives, so I will find out quickly how it compares to Google. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted May 16, 2005 Report Share Posted May 16, 2005 Spotlight Rules :P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb Posted May 17, 2005 Report Share Posted May 17, 2005 I have installed the MSN Desktop Search, and it says it is currently indexing, although I do not see it doing anything. WindowsSearchIndexer.exe is sitting idly with 0% CPU usage. I don't see any I/Os going on. I'll give it until tomorrow morning to get some work done.The first thing I don't like about it is that I cannot exclude emails from being indexed. I don't want/need my emails indexed; I use Lookout for this (which actually seems to be part of the MSN Desktop Search; go to the http://www.lookoutsoft.com/ base URL, and it will redirect you to MSN Desktop Search!I'll report more tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-pops- Posted May 17, 2005 Report Share Posted May 17, 2005 Here they go again. Bill Gates filching other peoples' ideas, cutting them down no doubt (i.e. ruining them) and expecting to jump on yet another bandwagon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted May 17, 2005 Report Share Posted May 17, 2005 I have installed the MSN Desktop Search, and it says it is currently indexing, although I do not see it doing anything. WindowsSearchIndexer.exe is sitting idly with 0% CPU usage. I don't see any I/Os going on. I'll give it until tomorrow morning to get some work done.The first thing I don't like about it is that I cannot exclude emails from being indexed. I don't want/need my emails indexed; I use Lookout for this (which actually seems to be part of the MSN Desktop Search; go to the http://www.lookoutsoft.com/ base URL, and it will redirect you to MSN Desktop Search!I'll report more tomorrow.Ummm MS bought it :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb Posted May 18, 2005 Report Share Posted May 18, 2005 Ummm MS bought it :DYes, I knew that, but I didn't know that it was going to be part of this thing. Well, looks like I have both now...The indexing completed yesterday evening after about an hour. By default it does not run the indexer while a user is active on Windows. But it can be started manually, which I did before I left.This morning I conducted a few searches, and I have to admit, so far I like it! :)The search toolbar is in the taskbar, between the language bar and the systray.When clicking on the search bar, a pop-up with preliminary results appears (with results being refined while typing).After clicking on the Search Desktop button, the Desktop Search Results window opens, with all the result documents from all specified locations. When clicking on any one result document, a preview of the doc opens in the right-hand pane.A category bar on top lets us refine the search results by category: Everything, Documents, E-mails, Pictures, Music, etc.The search is very fast, and the generated index is not that big, less than 100MB in my case. (The Google desktop search index files are > 500MB).I also just did a Google desktop search on the same keyword, and it found only 20 documents, whereas MSN found more than 70. I will use it more over the next few days, but I already have some feeling that I will probably keep both, or even get rid of Google (which is actually still in beta). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb Posted May 20, 2005 Report Share Posted May 20, 2005 I still like it, and it gives me very good search results.The only thing I find irrititating is that there is no Find facility on the preview pane. I do have to open the doc in its original app, e.g. Word, Visual Studio, or whatever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Belatucadrus Posted May 29, 2005 Report Share Posted May 29, 2005 I tried this out and wish I hadn't my system became subject to repeated lock-ups at irregular times, for no apparent reason:- on boot up, while on the net, starting e-mail progs all sorts. I have not identified why it did it or what it was incompatible with. But removing it restored my system to it's previous impeccable state of stability.It may just be my set up that caused these problems, but I'll not be installing it on any systems any time soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scuzzman Posted May 30, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 30, 2005 You should assure your computer is completely spyware-free before installing ANY Microsoft software because of how integrated it is with the OS.You can try posting a HJT log into the HJT/Spyware forum to give that a shot... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Belatucadrus Posted May 30, 2005 Report Share Posted May 30, 2005 You should assure your computer is completely spyware-free before installing ANY MicrosoftI use Firefox, Spywareblaster, SpywareGuard, Microsoft Antispyware, Spybot S&D, Kerio firewall and avast!. All updated and where applicable used to scan regularly. I've not had spyware or adware problems for months, so I doubt that's the issue.Whatever it is, I'm more than relieved to regain system stability and don't find what it offers, sufficient reason to go through that rigmarole again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb Posted May 31, 2005 Report Share Posted May 31, 2005 I can't imagine why this was happening - did it happen during indexing, or even after indexing was complete? Just curious, as I have absolutely no such problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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