Google Desktop Search
Genius. Sheer bloody genius. I love the way it integrates with the standard google search results. I love the speed and the ease of use.
Kinda makes Lookout a bit redundant I suppose.
I can't wait until they add plugins for searching Firefox history (and bookmarks?), MSN conversation history, C# source code, etc. How about integrating with Picasa?
Update [2004-10-21]:
Upon mature reflection... Well, almost a week has passed, and despite my initial enthusiasm, I've hardly used Google Desktop, sticking to Lookout for most purposes. Some reasons why this is so:
- The Google search might be lightning-fast, but first you have to get to a browser, and as I spend much of my time in Outlook, Lookout is more convenient.
- Lookout results allow me to quickly sort by size, attachments, date, subject, sender, ranking, etc - useful when I have a vague idea of some of the properties of the email for which I'm hunting.
- It seems Google Desktop only searches Outlook emails - not calendar items, which is a bit of a drawback as these often contain the information I'm after, such as a meeting agenda.
- I don't use Internet Explorer, or AOL IM, so the fact that Google Desktop indexes these is of no benefit to me. Lookout already indexes common Office docs, so for my purposes there's nothing that Google can find for me that Lookout can't.
- Google Desktop was using around four times as much disk space as Lookout - not that it was problematic for me, but it's a consideration.
So, in summary, I'm sticking with Lookout for the time being. It does what I need brilliantly - I apologise for ever considering that it could be redundant!
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