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KDE Plans 'Google-like' Search Capabilities

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the slocate-not-good-enough-for-ya dept.

CoolFX writes "Developers of KDE have announced plans to simplify searching for files on the open-source Linux desktop environment by adding a Google-style search feature. The next version of KDE, which will either be called 3.4 or 4, is expected to include the new search feature... Aaron Seigo, a KDE developer, said the community has already been discussing and writing code for the new search engine at the KDE Community World Summit."

4 of 356 comments (clear)

  1. Re:How will this work? by FlipmodePlaya · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm wondering why they're saying it's 'Google like'. Do they just mean 'search engine like', and got caught up in the brand name (like they do with the iPod so frequently)? Or is there something about it comparable only to a Google technique?

  2. Google, and Tao by ka9dgx · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Google couldn't exist without the internet, and HTML. The reason Google is so good is that they are the best on the planet (except maybe the NSA) at extracting metadata from the internet. The pagerank algorithm lives on links, which don't exist on most people's hard drives. Searching and indexing hard drives, like the "find" in Windows, isn't the same, isn't close, and is very likely to disappoint someone expecting Google quality results.

    It's a whole system, the Google/InterNet/Authors... you can't have parts of it standing alone.

    --Mike--

  3. Beagle? by marvin2k · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Please somebody tell me that they will cooperate with the Beagle project on this and don't reinvent the wheel yet again. It would be a real pain in the ass to have too indexes wasting your hd space which basically do the same thing.

  4. Background by kris · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The article in N&T is based on ideas by Scott Wheeler (and Till Adam, and Aaron Seigo and others). See Beyond Hierarchical Data: Search and Meta Data as Fundamental Interface Elements, Scotts lecture on query-based interfaces at aKademy.

    "Google like" here means just "searching", but the result will in fact be more like WinFS than Google in that it is using file data and file metadata to index and find things. Interface-wise expect more quicksearch bars like the one in Kmail 1.7 (KDE 3.3.0, Till Adam) and JuK (Scott Wheeler).

    See also a Blog entry of mine (german language) in the same vein.