Slashdot Mirror
Google Experiments With Local Filesystem Search
Teoti writes "No, Puffin is not the next name of your favorite email client, but, according to the New York Times (NSA reg. req.), the project codename for a new Google search application coming directly into your desktop, that will let you search your local filesystem efficiently. This is different from, but complementary of, the Google DeskBar that already lets you search the Web. The article also gives a few words on the end of the stand alone browser in Longhorn."
I certainly hope this isn't a Windows-only thing.
Honey, I shrunk the Cygwin
Will Google's search application functions feature Clippy? Or that damned animated XP Dog?
...exactly what "local filesystem image search" will return.
Finally, a way to effectively search through my gigabytes of pr0n!
FS searching has absolutely sucked until this. Find By Content from Apple was a step forward, but it never worked too well. Here's hoping this search will make it into OS X!
Quid festinatio swallonis est aetherfuga inonusti?
Africus aut Europaeus?
Google will also be able to catalogue the contents of your refrigerator, medicine cabinet, and be able to tell you your car keys are between the couch cushions.
Will Google ever cease to shock and amaze?!?!
Click here for CNET version.
Hmmm.
Perhaps I do not realize the full potential of the Find utility in Windows, but MAN does it suck.
Do you love freedom??? Do you love freedom!!! DO YOU LOVE FREEDOM!!!!!!!!
cause honestly I'm not too interested in the Windows version.
all your search are belong to google!
Will it be windows only like their toolbar?
there's finally a Google section, no need to spam it.
wake me up when I can actually download this search program.
Wonder whether they'll start serving me ads based on my hard drive contents...
So, will I get ads based on my data?
is it me or has google decided to go off on many different dirrections recently. I know they have been growing very strongly, but are they going to reach a point where they stretch their resources too thin?
30% Troll, 50% Underrated, 10% Interesting
Score:5, Troll
What the title says. This just sounds like another pointless widget to me, since if you're going to be accessing things then chances are you'll remember where you put it. The only possible application I can see for it is if you are writing some kinda big paper and need to reference your already stored works, but again it seems a bit pointless. Maybe I'm just too damn sceptical...
HAH! I just wasted a second of your life making you read this, but I wasted a minute of mine thinking it up. DAMN.
I recently searched several hundred thousand files on my work machine. It took nearly 90 minutes to complete the search. I expect Google will be able to significantly improve upon that. They're one of the few companies that I really trust to do the right thing.
I'll bet it still can't compete with slocate and find.
I'm selling my K5 acct.
X1 seems to be the most popular one out there.
DiskMeta, they had this project in beta for a while, the Windows product went into relese just last week, the site says
DT Search, I remember their ads in bunch of computer magazines, although have never used them myself.
EFS, found it on download.com, supports MS Office and PDF as well as other formats.
...is a verb.
... will the performance be better than the already existing ways of searching a local fs? Percision is not much of an issue when I search for something, either I know the filename or the extension, Google won't really help with that. Maybe they'll use some kind of index to search faster... but I think Windows 2000+ already does that(at least XP).
However, I'm still waiting for my Google XP 3000+ processor,, Google H1 4wd, Google-Cola Light and McGoogle hamburger.
Is there any reason at all to use this? The reason Google searches on the web are so cool is that they relate documents that are around a ton of text. If I have a ton of images like DSCFxxxx.jpg, it's not exactly going to present that information in a new way... if it could tell me what the pictures were of automatically, that would be freaking awesome and I would get the tool. Otherwise, I'll just use find.
stuff |
No-Reg Link
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
will we see 'adsense' words based on which file we are searching for?
there must be a motive for this, some sort of expected gain, or why?
for the most part, google's actions are benign, I believe the claim that gmail scans are automated and innocuous.
but what's the benefit to google for this one?
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
HERE
No
Nope, Puffin is the codename for the DeskBar.
google should also make it capable of (optionally) searching palm desktop contact information, date book, etc. the palm desktop data files are not xml, or text, but binary.
Another way to fill your computer with spyware and trace you!
Rumor has it that this search feature will offer a side bar advertising various work that you should be doing instead of searching your hard drive for porn. If a user chooses to click through to the work they should be working on, a small amount of money will be deducted from said user's credit card.
This clickthrough model may help to move the market of hard drive scanning, currently bundled with free and single fee operating systems, to a fee-for-service basis. Many in industry say the revenues from this would be helpful in supporting further hard drive scanning innovations.
___
It's the end of my comment as I know it and I feel fine.
I do not remember the exact link to go to to avoid registration, but if you go to google.com and enter the URL into the search box, then click where it says "If the URL is valid, try visiting that web page by clicking on the following link: www.nytimes.com/2004/05/19/technology/19google.htm l?hp", you will get through. I am pretty sure this is because the referrer is Google.com and they are a NYT partner.
Just like driving a car:
(D) to go forward
(R) to go backward
to go thru the wiki, jpg filenames+exif data, home directories, SQL database, etc. A Google type interface is what I'm looking for.
For those infants out there, Lotus Magellan was the greatest, it was Windows Explorer as it should have been done, it searched any spreadsheet, database, or word processor file.
Gawd, Linux needs this. I would pay ~$250.00 for an industrial strength business version.
One of the things I do when I log onto a unix box is index all the files, so I can do quick searchs when I'm working. Even on a raid array, local file-system searchs are slow.
On my home network also, Windows boxes are extremely slow when you get over a few hundred gigs of space. With lots of pictures, mp3s, games, etc, searchs across multiple drives can take upto minutes. Enabling windows file-system indexing doesnt give the performance you would expect for a home user.
I'm looking to anything that can make my pack-rat of an existance quicker at home. Searching for files is a pain, I've already used different HD's for different types of projects to keep my searchs as quick as possible.
Ever download a funny picture or video clip and couldnt remember where you put it? Times that by a dozen years on the net, and its incredible the stuff you can pack away.
Of maybe you have a code snippet you wrote back in college that would fit the exact task you have now?
How many times do you use search/find in a day? Exactly, google is counting on this.
If you have followed Microsoft developments around Longhorn you might have noticed that search is one of the top priority features that microsoft is going to integrate directly into the operating system. So once Longhorn is released Microsoft would become the biggest competitor to Google's search applications on the web as well the desktop(with this application)
Search is the next big thing on which a lot of players are concentrating and Microsoft entering the field has skewed the competition towards the desktop and everyone including Google is preparing for the battle.
They aren't competing with Microsoft today. They are competing with Microsoft 2 years from now when Longhorn is, potentailly, supposed to be released. As the article states, Microsoft is looking towards more of a natural language (ie.. Where are my car pictures?) approach rather than simple search terms. It could be a pretty good battle between them, but I think Google might have a bit of an edge.
Hmmm.
find foo
and
locate foo
Work just great for me. I don't need anyone else to help me look for my data.
This SIG pulled due to lack of funding. (This damn war is costing too much!)
The company who puts a cookie on your computer that doesn't expire until 2038, has the ability to see lots of personal information about you, and who is interested in storing and indexing all of your email correspondance until the end of time, now wants to index my hard drive for me?
Call me paranoid, and mod me down because I'm sharing a negative opinion of Google, but I don't think I'm going to be giving this same company the ability to sift through my entire hard drive.
From me based on my own searches of my stuff. I have a five-star rating and deliver quickly to myself.
One feature that I've been wishing for for years is what I call 'layered search', which would search the root, then top level directories, followed by the second-level directories, etc. (basically a fifo queue rather than lifo or recursive). I wrote a simple search app that worked this way in Delphi 1.0 (that shows how long ago), and it was invariably faster than Windows search. I've lost it now though, but I might rewrite it in Perl/TK. It would be cool to have it as a checkbox in Windows built-in search though.
Seems to be like a rehash of the AltaVista Desktop search ...
:-)
I keep looking at Google and thinking "wow, this is just like AltaVista, without the death spiral!"
altavista tried this too .. didnt work out for them. Didnt get too popular. I dont know about making google ubiquitous .. one day either them or Big Brother may decide to take advantage of the "resource" ..after all, only rebels need privacy.
HERE
a search of localhost
weird huh?
This is as good idea, so long as it doesn't allow others to search my filesystem.
For those of you who hate to register.
Google Moves Toward Clash With Microsoft
By JOHN MARKOFF
Published: May 19, 2004
AN FRANCISCO, May 18 - Edging closer to a direct confrontation with Microsoft, Google, the Web search engine, is preparing to introduce a powerful file and text software search tool for locating information stored on personal computers.
Google's software, which is expected to be introduced soon, according to several people with knowledge of the company's plans, is the clearest indication to date that the company, based in Mountain View, Calif., hopes to extend its search business to compete directly with Microsoft's control of desktop computing.
Improved technology for searching information stored on a PC will also be a crucial feature of Microsoft's long-delayed version of its Windows operating system called Longhorn. That version, which is not expected before 2006 at the earliest, will have a redesigned file system, making it possible to track and retrieve information in ways not currently possible with Windows software.
Google's move is in part a defensive one, because the company is concerned about Microsoft's ability to make searching on the Web as well as on a PC a central part of its operating system. By integrating more search functions into Windows, Microsoft could conceivably challenge Google the way it threatened, and destroyed, an earlier rival, Netscape, by incorporating Web browsing into the Windows 98 operating system.
A Google spokesman declined to comment about the new search tool.
Although Google's core business rests on huge farms of server computers that permit fast searching on the Internet, the company has already taken several steps to move beyond that business.
Last year, Google began testing a free program called the Google Deskbar that makes it possible to search the Web by entering words and phrases in a small dialog box placed in the Windows desktop taskbar at the bottom of the computer screen.
Google also sells a computer search system designed to index and retrieve information created and stored by a single organization.
There is a rich history of less-than-successful attempts to create information search tools for personal computers. In the 1980's, for example, Mitchell Kapor's On Technology developed On Location for retrieving information on Macintosh computers and Bill Gross, a prominent software developer, led a group of programmers to create Lotus Magellan for the PC.
Digital Equipment's Alta Vista search engine group also developed a search tool for data stored on desktop PC's. Today there are a number of commercial products for desktop searches like X1 and dtSearch. Moreover, both the Macintosh and Windows operating systems have file and text retrieval capabilities.
The Google software project, which is code-named Puffin and which will be available as a free download from Google's Web site, has been running internally at the company for about a year.
The project was started, in part, to prepare Google for competing with Windows Longhorn, which according to industry analysts will dispense with the need for a stand-alone browser.
The disappearance of the Web browser and the integration of both Web search and PC search into the Windows operating system could potentially marginalize Google's search engine. Google, well aware of this threat, hired a Microsoft product manager last year to oversee the Puffin project as part of its strategy to compete with Microsoft's incursion into its territory.
Microsoft has shown demonstrations of its new search technology, which emphasizes the use of natural language in queries like "Where are my vacation photos?" or "What is a firewall?" Microsoft believes that Longhorn users will no longer think about where information is stored; they will instead see a unified view of documents stored on both the Internet and on the desktop.
The looming confrontation between Microsoft and Google is coming as Micro
Just like driving a car:
(D) to go forward
(R) to go backward
Their insurgence into all aspects of our technology is scaring me. Then again it would be nice to have an index of everything so we could do a verbal search for common everyday items:
"Google, find my car keys."
"Thank you sir,
Google World has located them at:
right where you left them when you came home smashed at 2:30am last night from the titty bars."
Does that techonology comes with strings attached (like GMail, you will get 100Megs of space, but we will read your mail).
"We will provide you with the best search possible, but based on the content of the documents you are searching and actual contents itself, we will provides non-intrusive Ads in the corner of the results page".
I remember Alta Vista offered this sort of search-your-own-computer software back in *1998*. This seems to be the most recent version: http://siliconvalley.internet.com/news/article.ph
Well, first this idea is part of Microsoft's WinFS plans. The idea with WinFS was partially born when Microsoft developers realized that major parts of the web can be searched faster than a user's hard drive. It will be interesting to see how this application will collide with Microsoft's plans, that's for sure. It's basically fast searches and enhanced metadata support that are the key parts of WinFS, which is in turn a key part of Longhorn.
Second, an indexing software that does the same thing is already available today and worked very well when I tried it out. It's actually almost perfect, except for the fact that it causes occasional hard drive thrashing as it tries to keep the index up-to-date. This is unfortunately a rather major downside, but if you can bear with this, you'll get literally instant file searches on your entire hard drive -- it narrows down the possible matches as you type each letter. It even indexes file contents for small files. I'm talking about X1.
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
Google should ask Microsoft for information it has to provide according to the antitrust settlement so that Google's own program can interoperate with Windows as good as Microsoft's!
Is it me or they just trying to really dumb down computers?
I have 100 gigs on my server and I can find shit I put in there 5 years ago in about 2 minutes or less. I guess some people just aren't organized ;-)
Is this next? http://ergopod.ca/images/googlekeys1.jpg
This image was on fark but I can't find it now. See how long before my server gets /.'d
I'm not anti-social, I'm anti-idiot.
Puffin - it's what you go do while you wait for your filesearch to finish...
"Google's strategy is to move quickly while Microsoft is still developing its Longhorn version of Windows, adding programs and services like its recently announced Gmail electronic mail program. The intent, say people who are aware of the company's strategy, is to lower its vulnerability to Microsoft by adding businesses that are "sticky" - in other words, businesses that create strong customer loyalty or are hard to switch away from."
From our business plan for Go_Ogle, a next-gen 'Friendster meets Blogger':
A provider of customized lifelong learning and career services (CLLCS) -- can achieve runaway market leadership in three stages:
Once you have a directory of the contents of everyone's harddrive, you're halfway to one hell of a peer-to-peer network.
Now, when Google can tell me where I put my keys, then I'll be impressed.
As a developer trapped in windows I find this little tool incredibly usefull.
"I can not bring myself to believe that if knowledge presents danger, the solution is ignorance" - Isaac Asimov
google link here
7680 MB Disk,192 GB Transfer,
Did someone actually call to verify this one, or will it be retracted in an hour?
Does anyone else find it interesting that Google is announcing new features for searching large filesystems at the same time that they are also providing customers with Terabytes of free storage?
You don't provide folks with a terabyte of storage in order to hold emails. This has to be an outsourced storage play...
Well, it's about time Google started taking the fight to Microsoft. The signs that MS are about to try their embrace and extent tactics on the search marketplace are already apparent.
Or haven't you seen the adverts everywhere for the MSN searchbar?
Where's the Kaboom?
There's supposed to be an Earth-shattering Kaboom.
more pr0n popups.
I read in Fast Company that since they've announced their IPO, they have to be really careful about what they say during this regulatory "quiet" period. The last story that flooded the tech sites this morning only involved "misplacing" a decimal point. Are they serious about this local filesystem search, or could something else be behind it?
666-607: 6th floor apartment of the beast
Since Microsoft considers Google a major competitor and has its target set on Google with Longhorn's capabilities, I think it would be a great idea if Google started distributing their own version of the Mozilla web browser. With Google's reputation, there would definitely be more people making the switch to Mozilla based browsers if Google were to do this. After all, Netscape is considered a failure now by the public and Mozilla to a casual observer lacks credibility no matter how great the product is.
"Right now, somewhere in this world, Scott Baio is plowing a woman he doesn't love," - Peter Griffin, *Family Guy*
R&D is what keeps a company from becoming stagnant, and having to try to find new ways to squeeze money out of what it has. [For those companies that sell a tangible, especially a tangible disposable product, it's not as big of a deal].
... for short term, you focus on advertising, to try to convince everyone that you have a superior product, as opposed to actually making a superior product, and waiting for people to come to you]
But to remain profitable in the long term, you diversify -- so you're not as likely to take a massive downfall from a single competing company. And you try to find new products and solutions, to improve what offerings you have (that whole concept of innovation).
Google's got their IPO coming, so they'll have a nice little bit of cash to work with to improve their chances of continuing their current rate of growth. [however, they're looking at long term growth, not short term
Any company with a big R&D section would have some form of review process for projects -- if things change, you might shelve a project, and reassign people, because you're not sure if it's going to be as profitable as you originally thought. Depending on the field, you might have some board meeting every 3-12 months to review the current projects, and reassign resources, to make sure you don't stretch your resources too thin, and to identify which projects could benefit from extra funding.
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
Midnight Commander already has a good file search facility.
There wouldn't be a need for this application if we could move away from file systems that rely on directory structure and contain little content-related meta-data. Microsoft was talking about a SQL-based filesystem for Longhorn, which they've also abandoned (thank god!!!!). SQL is a bit too heavy, and running mssql server to support a filesystem is a disaster in the making. However, some kind of organization based on file content (there are people working on this, of course) would make data so much easier to get to, and would make apps like this unnecessary.
find | grep pr0n
has worked pretty well so far.
I hope the image search will include a "safe mode" like the "real" google image search to filter out explicit nudity. I mean - my girlfriend uses my computer as well - and if she found those pictures I've stored in " ./ ../. /ex-girlfriends/" I'm toast.
I mean - if this was on a *nix system, it would index only the files I've got read permissions to. But on a windows system, there's no such (working) thing, so it would index everything. Could this pose a problem in a multiuser environment? Not to mention temporary files?
By the way - my girlfriend doesn't read slashdot.
Perhaps Google can fill this void in the pathetic Windows power tool-set ("Windows power tool-set" being close to an oxymoron).
But, despite my love for Google, in these more Orwellian times, I'm glad that I have the tools (not from MS) to monitor port activity.
Sigs are bad for your health.
For Google to index files, their software must both store the names of all the files AND READ THE FILE CONTENTS of all of them too ... would you trust Google, or more aptly, the U.S. government, advertisers, spammers, etc to read all the files on your computer?
... it's all truly akin to spyware quite really.
From the article, it appears Google plans to sell data gleamed from their file search tool to advertisers, etc.
Google File searching (GFile?) has privacy problems going way beyond the privacy concerns of GMail
Ron
You know, this is something about /. that has bothered me for awhile. Yes, I am aware this is offtopic, but I don't care.
You people who use your mod points need to pay more attention before you mod something. My comment was the first one posted to this story that contained the full text of the article. NYT requires reg, not everyone likes to give out their personal info (probably even more so on slashdot than your "normal" segment of the population). I was trying to do something nice and post the text of the article so that people could read it without having to go through hoops. It is not redundant you twits, because it was the first fucking post that contained the text of the article. I was not trying to karma whore, so I did not expect the comment to me modded up-- but to mod it down as "redundant" is ridiculous. Now, if there were 3 other posts (or hell, I'll even give you 1) that contained the full text of the article that were posted BEFORE mine I would be much more understanding. As it is, things like this make me glad I and many other Slashdotters have the ability to meta-moderate. I will make sure to keep an eye out for ignorant moderation such as this, and I hope that enough people meta-moderate these dolts that don't pay attention so that they no longer have the ability to moderate comments without discretion.
Have a bright and wonderful day!
Dan.
Just like driving a car:
(D) to go forward
(R) to go backward
"Longhorn users will no longer think about where information is stored; they will instead see a unified view of documents stored on both the Internet and on the desktop"
This set off alarm bells in my head.
Joe user can now search for screensavers both on his computer and on the internet without thinking about where the results come from.
In other news, Claria stock went up 3 points today.
(Karma = auto -1)
See Live Outlaws
Ok, ok, that was bad. Flogging may commence...
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.
according to the New York Times (NSA reg. req.),
Mod +5 Drunk
Makes me think of Ian's program Locutus. A decentralized file searching tool.
YAFIRL (Yet another Free iPods referral link)
Clicky here.
Hmmm.
Could you please find me a picture of a pair of really big boobs.
Results
Nice! I can't believe it's still beta.
With the size of *your* porn collection... Here come the penis enlargement text-ads =)
I worked on some precursor technology that X1 uses, as well as Enfish:
http://enfish.com/
Which is a fairly mature desktop search system.
This is great. It was getting so difficult to search the 80GB harddisk every now and then.
;-) ]
Now some one write code that my desktop search tool interact with others? Say when I search for a particular text, it talks to other machines on the LAN[atleast LAN if not full internet
Ehh....
I translate the above to read "Web != Desktop".
I'm glad to know that. I think I will go "web it up" for a while now. Get the latest on the hip scene from the cats who are down with the groove.
Seriously though. This is slashdot. Don't get so desperate for flavor text that you explain to us about how the Web and our desktops are not the same thing. We already know that. Why don't you go cast magic missle at the darkness (snicker)?
WWJD? JWRTFA!
Call me crazy, but I actually just keep logically structured directories and make sure to save items into the appropriate location... It's much simpler to take 10 seconds to place a file in the appropriate directory at the start than to hunt for it later.
Even when a file crosses multiple logical groups, (picture, jpg, family, nephews, 2004) if my information categories are sensible, and I use a heirarchy that makes sense to me, I don't need search that often. In fact, I can't recall the last time I had to do a search of my drive to find a file. (I should probably mention that my work requires a lot of information mapping, so creating and maintaining such a structure is trivial for me)
Of course, since Windows search is so inefficient and (sometimes) problematic, I learned long ago not to rely on it.
bluez3
Interested in a Flash-based MAME front end? Visit mame.danzbb.com
b) have fun!
Sunny Dubey
Per the article's comments about Longhorn and the "end of the browser" and how MS is planning to integrate network access with local services and applications to the point where a browser won't be necessary.:
Did I miss something? I thought Microsoft integerated the net with the local pc back in 1997 when they released IE4 and Windows 98 with desktop integration. Hrmmph... Go figure.
Ok, I'm being facetious.
Still, I'm not so certain this is a feature I want. In fact, until someone can demonstrate an example of why it would be useful, I'm certain I don't. I like having the local PC as a distinct domain separate from the net! I like that I have to open a program to access information that isn't stored locally! What am I missing about this -- is their focus group testing indicating that using a browser is just too confusing?
You know what's confusing? Windows HELP -- and not just how you use it, but THAT IT EVEN EXISTS AT ALL! My lusers come up to me all the time with questions that could easily be answered with good ole' F1.
What bothers me is that all of the work going on at Microsoft is pointed at new ways to annoy me. You want to make me a happyuser? Get your lousy freaking vendor partners to stop auto-running useless programs in my system tray; cancel ActiveX (*without* adding the TDMA crap I don't want) and get rid of the Windows registry. My main concern whenever I hear about these new thingamabobbers they're cooking ip is "Eeek! How hard is it going to be to turn *that* off? I sure hope R&D cancels it before Longhorn gets out of beta." I honestly think it's time they consider forking the project, or XP is my last version of Windows. Period.
There's just no joy in Windows anymore, you know what I mean?
Sincerely,
Eagerly awaiting Debian Sarge going stable in Ohio.
"Lawyers are for sucks."
- Doug McKenzie
From the article:
Microsoft believes that Longhorn users will no longer think about where information is stored; they will instead see a unified view of documents stored on both the Internet and on the desktop.
I don't like this idea. At all.
The main problem from my point of view has to do with ownership and control. Generally speaking, what's physically on my machine(s) is *mine*, that is subject to my total control (we'll leave aside intellectual property issues). I can add, change, delete, etc.
Still generally speaking, what's on some machine I access over the net is *not mine* in the sense that my control is reduced. Usually other people can do something with that information (again, add, change, delete) and if the machnine is taken offline, I have no access and no control at all.
As a simple example, consider a web page. In one case I make a local copy of it on my machine. In the other case I just have a bookmark. The difference in control is fairly obvious...
Now, what happens if we make users believe there's no difference between their local hard drive and Internet? That we drill into their heads that they are the same?
Well, you still have no control over information stored on the 'net. Thus, if you were trained to think that the local drive and the 'net are basically the same, then you would expect to have no control over information stored on your hard drive.
Note that by an amazing coincidence, that's also the goal of DRM -- that you have no control over information (that they call content) stored on your hard drive.
Also note that the flip side of the coin -- making your hard drive irrelevant by switching to a subscription service for everything, from OS to applications to content, is also a highly popular idea in Redmond and elsewhere.
So color me highly suspicious with regard to that idea...
Kaa
Kaa's Law: In any sufficiently large group of people most are idiots.
From the article: "The project was started, in part, to prepare Google for competing with Windows Longhorn, which according to industry analysts will dispense with the need for a stand-alone browser."
Yeah, because IE is such a compelling product today that I have little need for an alternative.
Ryosen
One man's "Troll, +1" is another man's "Insightful, +1".
Yeah, it'll be interesting to see how they find links from/to text and word processing files.
Isn't that the essense of PageRank?
find / -type f -exec grep {} THIS_THING \; -print
who named the puffin bird. I'm sure they'll want a cut of the IPO for the use of the name.
No, the outsourced storage would be at gmail.google.co.in
The Google Booty-bar, which searches your address book late and night and lists womens' numbers that are interested in getting together.
I have hundreds of word documents, PDF files, text files, e-mails in two different systems, etc.
I purchased Find from <a href="http://www.enfish.com">Enfish</a> and it saves me several minutes everyday. They have fancier products, but $50 for the Find application is all that I needed.
No, Puffin is not the next name of your favorite email client
But how do we know it's not the next name of my favorite web browser?
- Neil Wehneman
My legal education, in nifty podcast format
My 0.02's worth...
I find using an integrated file management system (such as Hummingbird's Docs Open) at work simplifies searching for documents immensly. (Our database scans c.200,000 files so Windows find would be a joke!) Like any filing system however, it does require the users to think a little about where they store their files, by matter number and client number, and how they are named. After a couple of anguished searches for labouriously produced documents, most colleagues get the knack, but there's always the odd one or two who don't.
The drawback of this system is that it is not effective for searches of content however (just too slow). Perhaps Google could provide a plug-in, now that would be neat.
No sooner had I just got done speculating that google was looking to be more than just your email for life does this story appear, allowing for searchable local file access. At this point it's a tiny leap to provide seemless HDD/online email storage. And here's another small stretch for you-- Somebody is wondering how they'll make money off this 1/100 gig email venture?? How about by selling the details of your hardrive contense, let alone what's in that gigs worth of email.
I know they've pledged to not be evil, but this is a privacy nightmare in the making with way too may question remaining as to the implimentation of these too good to be true projects...
You need a FREE iPod Nano
Will this Puffin thing fly on top Linux? Locate and find are all well and good, but there is room for improvement.
"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent" --Salvor Hardin
Google will win this battle.
1. Microsoft doesn't understand that people LOVE Google. Nobody particularly LOVES Microsoft anymore. Product activation, high prices, and security flaws are causing too many headaches.
2. Google is more innovative. What has Microsoft innovated in the past few years? Their products keep changing their look, but what about user behavior? AD changed admin behavior, but how has IE or Word gotten easier to use? Google has all kinds of creative stuff in the pipe. The Google toolbar has not only changed the way many of my users search, but it prevents a lot of popup related spyware installations as well.
3. Google is clean. If I see that damn dog show up one more time I'll kill myself. When I search my file system I don't want to hide the stupid mutt, change my options so that subfolders are searched, then click through three screens to say I want to search my file system. Google will cut through this nonsense because they believe in simple/clean interfaces.
4. The technology Microsoft seeks doesn't exist. Nobody can create a search engine based on current technology that takes plain speech user input and magically transforms it into accurate search results. Everyone I've seen that's tried this has failed to an extent. You can't just try your best to fuzzy match and pass it off as good results.
"Never tell me the odds"
Since Googles toolbar and deskbar doesn't work in linux, this software probably also won't. Won't you use for searching the contents of your files in your filesystem in Linux?
corrected
;-)
Damnit, talk about deflating someones balloon!
So let me rephrase that:
My comment was the first top-level post on this story that contained the text from the article.
/me awaits someone else to prove that statement wrong too...
Just like driving a car:
(D) to go forward
(R) to go backward
So in other words, you reinvent updatedb and locate?
Hey, Windows users, there is no such thing as "forward" slash, there is only slash and backslash.
Google, well aware of this threat, hired a Microsoft product manager last year to oversee the Puffin project as part of its strategy to compete with Microsoft's incursion into its territory.
That's the first time that I've ever read of it going in a direction away from Microsoft. Usually, it's the other way around, Redmond sucking up the managers and staff if they can't buy or steal the technology.
This sounds like a great place for Jakarta Lucene.
Lucene is Java and Open Source, so an app written to search a workstation should be able to run on any OS with a Java VM, and you can be sure it's not reporting any personal information to anyone.
I'd love to see it on my task bar. And, heck, it could probably be ready before Puffin
Just RFID tag everything from now on, and have well-placed readers in your house.
I hope that it can search for and know about specific objects within popular file formats. For example, search for individual e-mail messages within Microsoft Outlook PST files, search for individual rows within Microsoft Access MDB database files, etc. Searching at the file/document level only is nice, but not nearly as useful as search should be.
Microsoft believes that Longhorn users will no longer think about where information is stored; they will instead see a unified view of documents stored on both the Internet and on the desktop.
So MS thinks people will repeatedly confuse local files with offsite files and their answer is to facilitate such confusion? Lunacy!
If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
Where are my car pictures?
How is Windows going to know what pictures are your car pictures, that's assuming that the metadata is useless and so are file names.
-- I don't buy it, I grow it.
...10,000 Linux systems connected to your local system and it will all run snappy ;)
E.
Never rub another man's rhubarb - The Joker
I sure could use a good Windows-based replacement for Lotus Magellan. Windows Explorer seems so lame in comparison when it comes to file organization, plus Magellan's full-text search and comprehensive collection of file viewers was great. While I'm reminiscing, I miss Lotus Agenda a lot too. Outlook is nice, but Agenda had some great features that I haven't seen in other organizational programs since.
I, for one, never need to use a search utility. If you organize your filesystem into a consistent, easy to navigate structure, you can't get lost. Now, if you're the type who throws all of their documents, music, and pictures into one giant directory with no subcategory sorting, this may be of some use. But as I say, I have no use for it.
System config:
NAME PC - Model 5150
MANUFACTURER IBM
TYPE Professional Computer
YEAR 1981
BUILT IN LANGUAGE IBM BASIC (Special Microsoft BASIC-80 version in ROM)
KEYBOARD Full stroke 'clicky' 83 keys with 10 function keys and numeric keypad
CPU Intel 8088
SPEED 4.77 MHz
COPROCESSOR
BUILT IN MEDIA Two 160 KB 5.25 disk-drives
RAM 64 KB (upgraded from 16 KB)
ROM 64 KB
TEXT MODES 40 or 80 char x 25 lines
GRAPHIC MODES Optional CGA graphic modes : 320 x 200 / 640 x 200
COLORS Monochrome / 4 among 8 in 320 x 200 CGA mode
SOUND Tone Generator - built-in speaker
I/O PORTS Five internal 8 bit ISA slots, monitor, Centronics, cassette (!),
OS MS-DOS, CP/M-86
I hope not... That could get embarassing!
OTOH, I might finally get word about those wild lesbian orgies in my area that I've heretofore only found out about after the fact.
Who did what now?
DocYouMeant Hound is a search tool that I've been using.
:-)
I have a friend who knows the guy who made it. I'll bet he'll be annoyed when he finds out google is getting into the local search game.
try grep
It's true that freeware is dead. Whenever you download and install something that's free, you can be sure you're installing a zoo of spyware programs waiting to drain every last ounce of your system resources.
Thank god for open source software.
I'm a pretty avid user of Total Commander ( www.ghisler.com ) and it offers a pretty good search mechanism.
You can search on filename...
with wildcards...
with specific attributes...
using regular expressions...
within all supported archive formats (including those by plugin)
containing a certain text...
which can be a regex as well...
and output the results back to a new file management window or tab, ready for any operations such as viewing, editing (within archives, yes), quickview, etc.
I'm not too sure what a google search would add, lest it involves myself adding descriptions of files. In which case... total commander also offers file description files - I just tend not to use it.
Now, of course, an dedicated image search would be nice - but that's what dedicated image search applications are there for, not a filemanager.
Hopefully, "Go Ogle" indexing would fare better than Amazon's suggestions...
(ps, please post date this post until after the Twins are legal so it's not so wrong. Actually, I don't think it'll escape being wrong. I mean, have you SEEN "Meet me at the Mall"?!)
Intelligent Design: because MATH is HARD.
After the Google appliance, this seems like an expected move. The desktop is certainly key from a marketing sense.
However I don't see a lot of overlap with web search. The major pieces won't work the same:
Crawling: People want fresh information, eg that marketing report that just went out five minutes ago. Many web sites are happy to be crawled once a month. Keeping up with user edits on a filesystem is going to be a lot harder, and users will probably not be happy with heavy reindexing cycles. The ultimate would be heavily integrated with the filesystem, keeping an eye on all file activity, and refreshing the index appropriately. I believe Longhorn's delays are related to this problem.
Indexing: Desktops have a lot of file types, and strange crypts like the Outlook. Certainly Google has some support in this area, but more may be needed. There are also other document units like email messages instead of files, or even database records.
Fetching: Granted, a simple search toolbar will work, but I've been more impressed with, for example, Apple's Sherlock protocol, which allows multiple search "channels", eg Web, News, Stocks, etc., some from third party providers. IIRC this is what Firefox uses.
Ranking: Pagerank is definitely not going to work, although that may not be such a handicap when hit counts are in the one or two-digit range. Still, it's not a competitive advantage.
---- "If we have to go on with these damned quantum jumps, then I'm sorry that I ever got involved" - Erwin Schrodinger
Here you go
Would people be willing to live with ads sprinkled throughout their search items ?
imho.
A very long analysys. The problem with very long analisys is the same with very long bridges. One fail, everything undersea. So, If you can do smaller asumptions, the result ideas will be much easy to understand, must sure will be real, etc..
Anyway good post, boy.
-Woof woof woof!
I loved this product, and I'm pleased to see that Google's going to try a similar product. With 200+GB hard drives commonplace, this can be very useful.
Best Buy can have you arrested
Will Google scan my text files and display relevant text ads? Gasp!
Although privay issues are more impotant to me than anything I find it especially interesting that this was marked "Troll". It was obviously a valid point.
Mod parent back up.
I want Google search on my .pst files from Outlook. Searching for a keyword through 2+ years of email takes FOREVER with the built-in search feature in Outlook. We're talking 5 or 10 minutes here.
:-P
And if I had a nickel for every time I had to resend something to a co-worker because they were too goddamned lazy to just search their email for the message I sent them THE FIRST TIME, well, Google wouldn't need an IPO because I'd just buy them outright!
That being said, filesystem searches with Google would be damn nice too.
Mechanik
1) Some people think software=Microsoft, and like software.
2) Microsoft is design innovative. XP add a fresh looks to the already fresh look of Windows95-ish. Ok, not good coders, but design artist and lawyers and evil executives, but creative people after all.
3) I agree you, this why I use windows2000 and avoid windowsXP, the XP search box is CRAP. Also dont like the new eyecandy. But.. will the Google tool be something perfect day 0?. Looks at Mozilla, most Mozilla old versions where bloated and slow... then time pases and now I have Thunderbird and other lightweight cool stuff, that still support themes.
4) I agree 100% with you
conclusion:
1) maybe not
2) maybe not
3) maybe not
4) I agree you
-Woof woof woof!
microsoft's index server (a service on most installations of win2000/ winxp) does what this google product purports to do, but has a limited and clunky sdk, and i've found it to crap out and delay indexing new pages too much if i try to throttle it's resource use
i had a client who chose an implementation of index server i set up to do searches on his public website, but i have doubts about my solution's resource use
i replaced a guy who wanted to make a complicated mysql/ spidering solution, simply because my solution, apart from the aesthetics of the search page, was largely quick and easy, and it was fairly trivial to demo to the client a rudimentary solution for him using microsoft's index serverwhile the other guy was still in the starting gate
what would be interesting is if google builds an sdk into their local file system search that is more robust than microsoft's index service, and if maybe it can somehow "talk" to google on the web, really leveraging their intarweb leadership position to enhance any possible iis-linked implementation of this new product
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
http://www.uku.fi/~jmhuttun/english/softwares.shtm l
This program saves names of all files in your hard drives to file database. After that you can locate files. Very fast. This program works like updatedb and locate in Unix systems. Win32 based locating program also included. Program works with Windows 98/ME/NT4/2000/XP (and with Windows 95 if Internet Explorer 3 is installed).
Google making inroads on the desktop will only piss Microsoft off more, causing them to squash Google.
My guess is that Google will IPO big, become the next target of Microsoft, and then get squashed within five years.
MSN is already 1/3 of the search engine market, once M$ ties in Office and Windows Google is dead.
This Google stuff, remembers me about Lotus Magellan and IBM/Lotus Domino Domain Indexer.
And IBM/Lotus Domino does run on serval platforms (13 in total) and can index a very big ammount of data and diffrend file formats.
The weird thing is that file searches worked pretty well under Windows 2000. Under XP, the stupid dog just doesn't work. Even if I'm pretty much rubbing his nose in the file I'm looking for, he's either humorously slow or fails to find a file I know is there (and later find manually).
It's not like the search is doing something that amazing, crying, or crazy - I have no idea why it doesn't just work and work quickly.
Let's not stir that bag of worms...
"Microsoft believes that Longhorn users will no longer think about where information is stored; they will instead see a unified view of documents stored on both the Internet and on the desktop."
it's hard enough to convince people NOT to run random executables downloaded off the internet on their machines, at least once they're convinced of the pitfalls it is easy for them to stop. making it more difficult to recognize that the files you're interacting with are on your machine vs on the internet makes it more difficult for you to police your own machine.
Wer Deutschland Liebt?
It's sweet. Some features include...
Find the highest quality and most relevant documents; Google factors in more than 100 variables for each query.
Search for secure information and view only those documents to which you have access; results are returned securely for documents protected by either NTLM or basic HTTP authentication.
Judge relevance of results more easily via dynamically generated snippets showing your query in the context of the page.
Navigate search results easily and clearly using intelligent grouping of documents residing in the same narrow subdirectories.
Avoid missing results through typos or misspellings as Google automatically suggests corrections with startling accuracy, even on company-specific words and phrases.
View search results even when the sites are down via cached copies of pages included in the search results.
Quickly find the most relevant section of a document via highlighted query terms displayed on cached documents.
Glimpse documents without needing the original client application of the file format via automatic reformatting of over 220 file types into HTML.
Access time-sensitive information first via date sorting.
Perform complex and sophisticated queries with over 10 special query terms, including Boolean AND, OR, and NOT searches.
More details are available at the appliance page on Google.
#2 above probably won't show up in the personal desktop version of the search, thouhg it is really is handy for the appliance -- even if you manage a modest sized office.
A firewall can not protect you from yourself. Turn off what you do not need. Do not use the firewall to do your work.
1. Netscape conquers the browser market...
2. Netscape IPOs and climbs to some insanely high value...
3. Microsoft integrates browser into OS...
4. Netscape crubles...
- - - - fast forward - - - -
1. Google conquers the search market...
2. Google IPOs and climbs to some insanely high value... (coming soon)
3. Microsoft integrates search into OS... [Longhorn] (coming eventually)
Where do you think the rest of this goes?
Here's the relevant text:
Microsoft has shown demonstrations of its new search technology, which emphasizes the use of natural language in queries like "Where are my vacation photos?" or "What is a firewall?" Microsoft believes that Longhorn users will no longer think about where information is stored; they will instead see a unified view of documents stored on both the Internet and on the desktop.
The first thought I had - "Hey, Microsoft is buying Ask Jeeves!!".
The problem Microsoft has is that I already type phrases just like those into Google and get pretty good answers already... (well, not the "vacation photos" one - for that I click on the folder named "vacation photos"...) are they going to do better? I'm not sure they can. I like how Google is taking the fight to them instead of cowering for a few years waiting for Longhorn to be unleashed.
Microsoft is going the wrong way I think it trying to remove all context from anything and making everything one great big ball of stuff. I don't think I want to ask the exact same thing "where are my vaction photos" that I ask for information about a firewall. The kinds of answers such a unified app can give can hardly be as satisfying as a more compartmentalized approach.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I welcome adword technology in local searches, if the tool is really well done and free. Nothing wrong with that, and every now and then it might pull up something useful - just like the web based Google, which is the whole point!!
It's going to have to be pretty good to make me use t much instead of "find + grep" though - a powerful combo.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Google has perception of "love" but if you look at there tactics and what they plan on doing (as well as upcoming PATENTS) i find it hard to believe anyone would "love" google more than microsoft.
They're both aiming to be giants bigger than any corporation should be and having more control over data then one company should be.
Both are just as scary
Supercat is fast, windows only and I've had good results with it. It can also catalog cds and dvds which is helpful for that stack of unlabeled cd's sitting next to your monitor. I sometimes use it to catalog and index mapped network drives as well. (good for finding stashes of mp3s and "pr0n" on your network!)
Back in the late 1990s, I used the AltaVista Desktop personal search software. I used it on my Windows 98 computer back then. It was great, if I need to find something on my computer I would use keywords and it would find all the matching documents instantly. It seemed to already have everything on my computer indexed so it instantly knew were everything was.
Unfortunately, what I downloaded was only a demo version of the program that was only good for 90 days or something like that. When I decided to purchase the software I discovered that there really was not a reasonably priced version available for individual users. All that was available was extremely expensive versions intended for large companies. They did not even make an attempt to market it for users of home computers or small businesses. So even though I loved the software I had to stop using it. If I remember correctly it indexed not only text files but also MS Word documents, HTML, and my e-mail.
When searching for documents on my computer I always used the advanced search feature and did a boolean search using terms such as AND, OR, NOT and NEAR. It was very efficient. I now use Linux instead and have occasionally used grep, egrep, sed, awk and find but would perfer to also love to have the option to use a search engine on my home computer. I hope whatever Google comes up with will be available for Linux or at least will run under WINE or CrossOver Office. Of course, I would only use it if it is implemented in a way that does not invade my personal privacy. By the way, when searching the Internet, AltaVista does not seem to be using the same powerfull search engine with boolean operators that they once used so I recently switched to Google instead.
I also wonder how all this will compare with the new search engine that Microsoft is developing for WinFS under Longhorn. I hope that by then Linux will be offering equally good search capabilities. I seem to recall hearing that Han Reiser is in some way working on upgrading the ability of the Linux ReiserFS file system to be searched. Is that correct?
Snarfed, in its entirety, with thanks.
/. disappears tomorrow :-)
This is a nice, clear, well thought out description of the invasiveness we can expect in the next few years due to M$'s monopolistic control of the PC world. I will take your post, polish and embellish as needed during discussions with TPTB, and add some of my own insights. I have heard M$'s own visionaries tell of the new models of "thin clients"(longhorn++) and centralised licensing schemes which bill the user per use for every document view, web page hit, and search result.
I'm keeping a local copy, just in case
the AC
Hemos is like...sci-fi fans;he thinks technology is cool, but he hasn't bothered to understand the science it's based on
...hide files from myself that I don't want to find by putting a robots.txt on my desktop?
No.
You left out the part where everybody sues everybody else...
And the first one thing most people turn off in existing Windows installs is the indexing service.
And for a reason. Last time I used it, years ago, it really killed performance. That service seemed to be running all the time. Maybe it's better nowadays.
However, I usually know where I put stuff, so I don't need indexing. On rare occasions, I just use the normal search and can live with a couple of minutes time.
This is just one of many moves Google are making to counter their primary business risk - that someone (or more specifically, Microsoft) comes along tomorrow with a better search engine and puts them out of business overnight. They are looking to create a long-term relationship with people - that's why they're moving towards Personalized Search, and are also working on a whole host of ongoing searching products such as their Web Alerts, News Alerts. They're even encouraging the third-party Google Alerts service to try their hand at making money from this kind of thing.
...so can someone explain to me why it takes 5 minutes to search a 20 gig hard disk for "myfilename.txt" in Windows, and yet takes 30 seconds on a 10 year old Mac? I assume it has to do with the filesystem, but I just don't know. You see Windows search going through the whole directory tree... somehow I think this is not necessary on HFS/HFS+.
I mod down pyramid schemes in sigs.
The weird thing is that file searches worked pretty well under Windows 2000. Under XP, the stupid dog just doesn't work. Even if I'm pretty much rubbing his nose in the file I'm looking for, he's either humorously slow or fails to find a file I know is there (and later find manually).
I found that Windows XP only searches inside the file for a certain subset of file extensions. You have to explicitly tell it to search inside all files.
To change this:
Search
Change Preferences
With Indexing Service (you don't have to actually enable it)
Change Indexing Service Settings (Advanced)
Action > Properties
Check [x] Index files with unknown extensions
Or see: Repair The XP Search Engine, Did You Know It Was Broken?
You want a sig? I can get you a sig... Hell, I can get you a sig by 3 o'clock this afternoon... with nail polish.
think about it, the reason why google works so effectivly is because they have a multi terrabyte index of the internet, mirrored multiple times, its a large and space consuming (physically and in terms of hd space). without a similar local index how effective can a similar system to the one currently used be? and wouldnt that be kinda like the windows indexing service?
Back then, I downloaded and used the personal version of the AltaVista search engine. It was an EXE program that I ran under Windows. It was a great. The trail version that I downloaded was only good for something like 90 days. I tried to buy the program and discovered to my disappointment that they only offered expensive licenses that were priced for use in corporate networks.
I hope there will be a Linux version of Google's personal search engine. I also hope that it respects the users privacy and can be used when offline just like what AltaVista had. I would not use it if it ended up somehow being a new form of spyware. At home I use a dial-up connection and would also want to use it while offline.
If Google does not offer a Linux version I hope someone does create an opensource program of that type for Linux. In creating such a program they could probably use existing Linux/Unix commands such as grep and fgrep as building blocks to create the program. I would hope that the resulting program would be a browser based search engine that could do the advanced style searches. The personal search engine that AltaVista once offered found the matching documents instantly because everything got pre-indexed during regular scans of the hard disk that were done every few days (or something like that). So anyway if Google does not offer a Linux version, I hope someone will create a personal search engine for Linux. Ideally, I suppose it should work on personal computers or LANs whether the computer is currently connected to the Internet or not. It should also not have any spyware like components. Microsoft has been working on major new search features for Longhorn so I hope that Linux will also have improvements in that area. I wonder what type of new search features Longhorn will offer?
QuickSilver http://blacktree.com/apps/quicksilver/ currently freeware, mac only, will index file names, and other things like your address book names, recent email addresses, bookmarks, history and more.)
Its incredibly fast and stable. Sure it doesn't index the contents of the file, but most of the time the filename has very relevant keywords so it finds what I want.
The UI is very ingenious (try the bezel command interface) and by simply typing command-space I have access to a real-time show-as-I-type customizable index. Make sure to customize it to your liking. I can index the development enviroment as well.
Its called - Slocate...
You know - commands like updatedb, locate...
Pre-indexed search!
slocate is a great little program to speed up the process of finding files on your *nix computer system, but it's not a full-text indexer. Finding the names of files like slocate does is not the same as finding words that appears within those files. It is a great replacement for "find / | grep $PATTERN" though.
Google will soon own, for many millions of noobs:
- A life worth of the noobs e-mail.
- A record of what the noob searches for (includes a persons likes, wants, needs, jobs, etc).
- Access to every file on their computer.
- All of the above will be cross-referenced (you are a fucking idiot if you think it will not. JetBlue will never give data to the Gov for TIA tests, either, eh? EH?)
This is waaaay too much info for a single company to have on a person. VERY scary. VERY.
Locate32 is a program that can replace your built in Windows FIND function, including indexed searches.
With Microsoft delayed for 'advanced' local file system searching because of its reliance on .NET, I'm curious what technologies Google plans to use for competing against Microsoft's future plans.
Any ideas? Java?
"There ought to be limits to freedom"
What? All this talk about Puffin and no references to the delicious cereal?
I used to like google because I got honest search results from 'em. I knew if I googled, I could trust that I was finding all possibilities, not something creatively ranked according to how much cash someone paid to get their site to pop up higher in the ranking. But currently I'm finding I like the results from Altavista and Alltheweb better than Google's results.
I don't need Google's email; I don't like the size limit as I have no idea how much space a lifetime's worth of email will take up, and given I can save email to my hard drive, Yahoo's limitation of 6mb is fine. And all I need to do is click on Mozilla, go to Yahoo Mail, and sign in.
I don't need a special search bar. Again, I click on Mozilla and proceed to my favourite search engine.
I don't need a search engine for my hard drive. I've already got a pretty good idea what's on my hard drive and where everything is located. Anything I can't find I can hunt down with Window's Find feature.
Google is getting way overhyped. With an IPO to hit the market sooner or later, this is going to be another stock that soars in price initially, then tanks over time.
I've had something like this for quite a while now. It could use some more polish, but is lightning quick for finding local files.
I used to do research on the Internet Archive's web collection. Each web snapshot was distributed across many unix boxes stuffed with disk in ARC files (a text archive format developed by IA for web crawls).
With the architecture at that time (around 1999) you could gre p the internet in I believe half an hour. The way you would do it would be to remotely run grep on each box and then collect the results.
--Pat / zippy@cs.brandeis.edu
So now they want to scan the contents of my harddrive to deliver relevant ads with their adsense/adwords BS? Kickass, where do I sign up$@#?
Excuse me if i'm not overly enthusiastic about things like this. It's bad enough that GMail will do the same thing with your private mail, but allowing them to do it to the data on your drive is just silly.
BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
It may not be my favorite e-mail client, but puffin is definitely my favorite past-time.
(Weed you fools)
There's an existing similar program called X1 Search (www.x1.com). It also indexes your hard drive, but it's not free.
It's actually a product from Idealab, that $1 trillion dollar internet uber-incubator. I think this is all they have left (well this and goto.com). Too bad a better company just came out with a better product that will be free...
Alta Vista Search was great, although I found myself not using it as much as I thought I would. I still have the latest version, but it only goes up to Win 98.
to the net??
They'd definitely not make it only-for-systems-with-internet-access
So it'd be highly unlikely that they can show you ads depending on your content (unless they force you to dump a few GBs of their ads on to your disk)
if index is created as you press "save" icon. Whoever owns save icon will lead on local search. Maybe "save" icon will be replaced by "index" and "open" by "search" in the not-so-distant future.
That's interesting, just as PoleCat - the local search engine is about to be released. See http://www.dtek.chalmers.se/~heineson/d3projekt/ and "Ladda ner" for beta-download.
"1. Microsoft doesn't understand that people LOVE Google. Nobody particularly LOVES Microsoft anymore. Product activation, high prices, and security flaws are causing too many headaches."
It's almost cultlike...but much like linux, there are hotbeds of microsoft support here and there...who absolutely love microsoft and anyone who might do things any different than their way is a heretic. And I'm talking about educated people here...most people just don't care, and think that microsoft/AOL is about the easiest means to whatever limited action they are persuing.
2. Microsoft, has, in my opinion, innovated one thing: stealing other people's innovations, and doing a good job at it. If there's one thing that Microsoft could use to beat google with, it would be other people's innovations.
4. are you sure?
GENERATION 26: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation.
This is yet another example of Google stealing someone else's idea! I've been using blinkx.com for a while now and it integrates what we have at the moment from google (ie a good search engine) with google's proposed local file search. Now if only blinkx had a linux client...