Desktop Search Programs

by Maria Antonietta Ricagno

Everybody knows how difficult can be to find a file, or an old e-mail or even a picture in a computer overcrowded by a huge amount of archived files and documents. And how quickly any computer can pile up any kind of stuff, either useful or not, recent or old.

But technology will save us all! A new family of software programs is now available to overcome the problem of searching files: they are the desktop search programs, and the most popular are Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, AOL and the newcomer Blinkx.

These programs are downloadable for free, easy to install and use and do their job quickly and effectively. Once installed, the desktop search program will start indexing all the contents of your computer: sometimes, this operation requires hours. After indexing, you can start using the program by simply clicking on the icon appearing on the toolbar.

But let's have a closer look at them.

GOOGLE

Google Desktop Search (downloadable at www.desktop.google.com) looks for Word and Excel files, e-mail messages and also audio and video files. It works as if you typed a word in Google on the Internet, and what's more, every time you look for something in the Internet using Google, it also searches your computer and shows the relevant objects as well.

YAHOO

Yahoo Desktop Search (downloadable at www.desktop.yahoo.com) offers similar features, but has a different look-and-feel. When you click on the icon on the toolbar, a large windows opens: on the top toolbar it features a search box to input the name of the file you are looking for, and the fields which you can choose to carry out the search in, namely Email - Attachments - Contacts - Files - Pictures - Music - All.

On the right hand, a preview window enables the user to preview the contents of the searched file(s). It can also find .zip files, but cannot open them for preview.

MICROSOFT

Microsoft Desktop Search program (downloadable at www.beta.toolbar.msn.com) in addition to look for files, images etc. also examines the metadata in multimedia files. It is part of a new MSN Toolbar and also enables you to create separate indexes for separate accounts. That is to say, you can hide certain files if you do not wish to share their contents with other users.

ASK JEEVES

Ask Jeeves Desktop Search program (downloadable at www.askjeeves.com) also - like Yahoo - has a separate preview window to display files.

AOL

AOL Desktop Search program (downloadable at www.aol.com) is not currently released yet, but it will be part of an AOL free browser.

BLINKX

You can download this program at www.blinkx.com. Once downloaded, it places an icon on your screen: every time it finds something relevant to your search, the icon will blink.

The unique feature of this program is that it only looks for files that are relevant to your current job on the computer.

I downloaded either Google and Yahoo desktop search programs and I use them both very often. I find them effective, quick, easy to use. In my opinion, I find Yahoo Desktop Search program better and provided with more features.