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Microsoft Releases Toolbar Suite
Philipp Lenssen writes "Microsoft today released the MSN Toolbar Suite Beta. This brings true desktop search to Windows (for those who don't have Google Desktop Search or similar software running already) and also includes features like search term highlighting in web pages, auto-completing of forms, and a pop-up blocker."
Who wants to bet that this suite is going to be bundled in the next Windows? It's pretty easy for them to integrate this toolbar into any Windows-apps like IE, Outlook, calendar etc since they also happen to write the OS.
I always maintain that the majority of users don't know they have a choice, hence they're using/starting/opening whatever that's been thrown at them.
It's quite convenient for MS to sit and see what works, then create their own, and with their dominance in desktop OS, they can easily claim a huge chunk of the desktop-suite market share overnight.
It wouldn't be as easy for its online search service because that requires users to go there, thus opens up the "choice" perspective.
Rock that crushes, Paper & Scissors that don't matter.
...Microsoft Released a Rebranded Google toolbar?
In Soviet Russia, Trojan exploits YOU!
I wish there was a Google toolbar for Firefox (ie the main feature I would like to see is search term highlighting in web pages).
Why don't they just make "true desktop search" and put up on windows update.
The toolbar claims to block annoying popups, but the most annoying pop-up on my work computer (where I am forced to use Internet Exploder) is the one that says I have Active X disabled.
I mean, my firewall has one. IE has one (so does MyIE2), this has one. pfft.
Windows includes a search function. IE with SP2 blocks popups. IE has been auto-completing things for a while, too. I don't understand why Microsoft made this. Even if the features are improved in the toolbar, shouldn't they have just improved the backend and just distribted it via Windows Update?
Doesn't XP SP2 come with a popup blocker? Why would they put another one in (besides bringing popup blocking to earlier versions of Windows)? It just seems like a waste to me.
US businesses that currently accept chip and PIN/signature
"Oh, Google and Yahoo! did it? Well, then we better, too!"
so... who here is actually going to use this? no one?
so that means it's targetted to a less technically-adept audience, right? how is microsoft going to make them aware of the advantages of this toolbar? package it with softwar? a giant marketing campaign?
this thing doesn't look like it's going to be a huge success.
I told the google execs to patent all that, but would they listen? Noooooo!
Like what should have been in an OS from the start?
See, even Microsoft gets to say ME TOO sometimes.
Future predictions for Windows features:
Expose
Tabbed Browsing in IE out of box
Rendezvous
Dashboard
this sig limit is too small to put anything good h
May conflict with other pop-up blockers and cause you to not be able to click on anything at all.
The toolbar has to be on-screen for pop-up blocking to work.
Needs administrator privileges to install.
Includes a plugin to search PDF files.
Includes desktop search.
Currently supports U.S. English only. Don't try to install it on a non-U.S. English version of Windows.
How am I supposed to fit a pithy, relevant quote into 120 characters?
DOIIIIIEEEEEEEE!
Why they have a popup blocker built into the toolbar? Isn't Internet Exploder supposed to have one already?
I for one welcome the coming of our toolbar wielding overlords.
Great, now I can put 2GB cache, 4-disk RAIDs in all my desktops so that basic searches complete sometime this week.
I know, if it's smart, it'll run once for an initial indexing and only index new/changed files on the fly. Still nothing comes free, so the cost will be some CPU and I/O, but how much?
Well, maybe not a dollar short, but late? For sure. Hell there are even spyware toolbars that do this stuff.
Luck favors the prepared, darling.
requires /c /t: to unpack and then /i MsnToolbarSuite.msi TBSDEVCODE=1 to install on 2003 server. Annoying.
msiexec
For the last time, Microsoft promised features found in Google Desktop and Spotlight, years ago as part of Longhorn. There are *plenty* of cases where MS steals ideas, but in this case Google and Apple got to the market first with a product MS promised about prior.
Yeah, I'm aware MS didn't invent the idea, but they certainly didn't steal it from Google or Apple.
Just so long as they don't throw in more of that retarded "Search Assistant"/"Office Assistant" crap. If i wanted an animated char to 'help' me out, i would go grab Bonzi Buddy or some other worthless peice of bloatware.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
How come I feel like installing this will give my computer another reason, er excuse, to crash Explorer...?
Thats funny... isn't MSN Search a... beta? So "final version" = "beta"? Explains a lot!
It's hard to go past Copernic Desktop Search. It supports Firefox for a start and is tried and tested. It's also fast and comprehensive. Personally I see no reason to switch. http://www.copernic.com/en/products/desktop-search /index.html
I want clippy to pop up and point to my search strings in the rendered pages. I also want clippy to say, "I see you're searching with google. Would you like help using microsoft search? How about a hotmail account?"
Reality is nothing but a collective hunch.
makes me wish i still used windows so I could try it. NOT.
GETPKG - Package Management for Slackware
with nCASE?
It will be interesting to see how this compares with Google's DS. I've been using Google's at home since it came out. I tried this one on my work computer. It definitely seemed to do its indexing faster than Google. Like Google, it only indexed when the CPU usage had been low for awhile. Search response also seemed a little better, mostly because of the results-as-you-type feature. It also seemed to do a better job finding music files, including AAC files I ripped with iTunes.
It occurs to me I have been able to do this with OSX on my powerbook for years
There are 10 types of people in the world, those who know binary and those who do not!
I wonder how long it will be until hackers find a hole that will allow them access inside this?
Channel9 has some good movies that demo most of the features. There's actually some cool stuff like using it as a Start->Run box, creating small macros, etc.
It's brilliant! I wonder if this will make the Browser Hijackers' work easier -- just call the desktop search routine in the IE Toolbar instead of writing their own code.
Maybe they could put some more of this creativity into locking down IE and Windows. On the other hand, I make some good money cleaning systems, so there IS a silver lining. <grin>
[note: this is meant to be cynical]
Yet again micro$oft proves they are a very innovative company. I bet they will get their patent for this great invention real soon.
Microsoft Bob (TM)
Still waiting for them to release a service pack!!!
I'll be getting this right away just like im going to get SP2 as fast as i can...
I just downloaded and installed this thing. 4.some megs for what appears to be an IE plugin. There doesn't seem to be the option to make the 'search' bar integrate with the taskbar at all (which was what my initial pre-install impression was).
I will say that I'd half expected for there to be a minimalist appearance. Nay, there's about 10 different buttons on the bar that gets installed in IE, and I was initially pestered with 2 desktop bar-specific nags. Additionally, the damn thing defaults to searching the web, not the desktop.
So I've been sitting here for about 10 minutes waiting for the thing to build an index. The Google Destop Search tool has about 40Mb of files on this machine, and I honestly don't think I've got much more than (if even) 1Gb of files on it. I've run a search for a couple files within the "My Documents" directory, and nothing turned up. There's no indication that the index is being built, or when it might be done, etc.
There also doesn't appear to be must customization ability for the actual search tool, either. Just build, or rebuild the index. No "exclude directory" type stuff.
The additional pop-ups look useful, though, for an IE user. It's all standard fare for a Firefox user, of course. Considering that most people that would likely use such a tool from MS are likely already using Firefox, I'd say chacnes are slim this sees much fanfare.
Can't say I'm impressed. It's got the same intrusive feel of Clippy, with the nice interface of MSN Search. Not impressed in the least.
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
What did you expect running pre-release software on a server OS retrofitted to a workstation role?
>>
and also includes features like search term highlighting in web pages, auto-completing of forms, and a pop-up blocker."
*** Notice ***
Privacy Gaurd [TM] has detected four new pieces of spyware on your system!
*** Notice ***
Durn. It sez, "Warning! Your browser does not meet the minimum system requirements. You are recommended to use the MSN Toolbar Suite with Internet Explorer 5.01 or later."
Guess I'll have to, ahem, "upgrade" to IE/Windows so I can get the neat toolbar. Heh heh heh...
Mark
Wow! I wish FireFox was that innovative !
:wq
Competition is a good thing, obviously resulting in MS deciding it must improve its search capabilities due to pressure from Yahoo and Google. But this is NOT a new feature within Windows or in general. Sherlock anyone?
There already is a search function integrated within Windows. Perhaps it is not as full featured as the MSN Toolbar Suite, but it is reasonably effective as long as you properly specify what you are looking for.
Perhaps this innovation just demonstrates how limited the existing search function is, or how important a 'buzz technology' this has become.
I happened to notice this on the Channel 9 RSS Feed: http://channel9.msdn.com/rss.aspx They have a few pieces of footage. The one I watched was about an hour long interview with one of the developers and one of those fanatical MS Project Managers. It was interesting, though I think someone with half a clue would be able to put stuff onto their HD in an organized fasion, negating the need for such a thing. I'm no MS Fanboy, but this might be of use to clueless users who save stuff willy-nilly and have no idea where they put it. Though, some of the advanced features are way beyond such a user as this. Check out the video, it'll give you a bit of a clue as to what it's all about.
"Would it kill you to put down the toilet seat?" -- Maya Angelou
So I decided to install this POS to test it out. The final straw for me was that it hid and disabled my google toolbar in IE. That is:
1) shady
2) annoying
3) typical Microsoft
Do not install this.
I don't say this as an anti-MS zealot or anything. It's just that I've noticed over the past two years Microsoft has gone from a market leader to an almost purely reactive organization. It's amazing to see a company go down hill that quickly.
he wasn't smart enough to think about it that way - after all, he is use a Micro$oft server product..
YHBT
LOLOMGWTFBBQ! Micro$ucks Winblows Internet Exploder is teh sux0r!!!1 Itz like CFLAGS='-O1 -froll-loops -fslow-math -mmisalign-double -march=i286 -fframe-pointer -fmucho-exceptions'
The optimistic geek in me says "This is the desktop search engine you've been waiting for. It's been built by the same company that built the Windows operating system it'll be running under, so you know it'll be more optimized and stable than those other '3rd party' search engines".
While the techie part of me is screaming "It's Microsoft Maaaan! Are you fucking nuts considering this!?"
Pop-up blocking is not the touted feature of this toolbar release. Also desktop search is nothing new - Google, Copernic, X1 all have stable offerings. What may make MSN desktop search popular is the fact that it allows users to search directly from windows explorer. Now when searching for files on my dektop, windows explorer is the first place users tend to look for (Users are used to pressing F3 in explorer).
I tried my hands at the suite and on the face value, it doesn't seem special or radically different from its competitors. But I am yet to find anything seriously wrong with it.
And though it claims to index and search my Outlook emails, it is not fast and flexible enough to make me want to replace my Lookout toolbar.
Looks alot like google search bar! Yikes... ALOT like it..
File this in the: OMG! We actually have to compete with another product, category.
You hate Microsoft but you're an IE user? Funny how anti-Microsoft zealots use Microsoft software...
You must be very brave trying BETA on a server, unless you have load of cash and spare servers to boot.
I hate people that dont have a sig
Who cares really? It's their OS, they can bundle anything they want in it. Got a problem with that? Use mac or *nix, don't cry about it for heavens sake!
there's one built into ie for xp sp2, there's one in google toolbar, yahoo toolbar, earthlink's got one and Norton's like a popup nazi -- thank god there's another inscrutable place to foil legitimate popup windows
http://www.lookoutsoft.com/Lookout/
"We are delighted to announce that Microsoft has acquired Lookout Software!"
BTW, Lookout works like a charm!
If you have search as you type enabled, you just start typing the word, then you can click "Highlight" if you want it highlighted where it is found on the page. No /bear or anything.
I know people who would/will/have done this. Later, they will ask me to fix whatever is making their computer run slower, and keeping their internet connection busy.
In the time since Google DS came out till now, MS has developed a toolbar and released a beta. Either they had this cooking for a while or they are very quick and sloppy coders. 4mg download indicates that there is a lot more under the hood of this toolbar (Google DS was ~200k) that i dont know and dont want to know about. Code should be small, quick, and efficient.
I hate people that dont have a sig
Google did not invent the idea, nor have they had long enough to perfect it. So what if MSN wants to give it a go?
I for one ( not what you are expecting... ) do not worship at the feet of Google. They consistently deliver up sub-par search results, and they are not in this world to make your life better, they are here to make money just like anyone else with a business.
Please, use Teoma for a while and see what you think. Clean interface, and for me at least, orders of magnitude better search results. Same goes for All The Web searches. Google is brilliant, I will give them that much. Two and three years ago, no one could deliver relevant search results like google. Today we are dealing with a different story though, and google does not deliver better results than any of the big players at the moment. The new MSN search in particular gives better, less commercial results.
Depends on what you are searching for though. If you want to buy a product, use google ( or better yet froogle ), if you want information on a product, try Teoma, alltheweb, or the new msn beta. Beats google hands down in my book.
Didn't do that for me, Google toolbar (and Google Desktop) is still there and working fine.
For those who have been windows users: ;) )
Out of curiosity, how many people had popup blockers installed before service pack 2 came around? I fiddled with a few different kinds back before google came around and I decided I really liked none of them at all... they were variously: useless, impractical, or spyware laden... to the point that I got a good deal annoyed and chose to instead make instruction of the people who's computers I had the care of, the primary focus... Back then it was mostly family, and I had the run of the computers at any time I wanted (between the hours of 10pm and 10am, garunteed all mine
The point I'm making is that I taught proper use of the computers and made regular sweeps of the computers, and had a router/switch w/ strict rules, between the cable modem and the home network and a minimal ad-blocking hosts file, and I've haven't had real problems since then... Every so often X, Y, or Z made it through, but those that did came via downloaded games... (damn bonzi buddy,gator). So we have never had popup blocking till now, and as long as the computers were clean, we didn't have problems...
At the same time every so often I help some clueless collegiate freshie (mostly girls) and my jaw drops at how bad their computers get...
So what are the stats? popup blocking on MS Windows before SP2 vs not?
Gravity Sucks
Eventually these desktop searches will become glorified adware at best and spyware at worst.
Okay, here are the facts, but all in all it doesn't add up: Microsoft creates Windows XP and built-in search functionality. Search in WinXP is horribly slow, clunky and generally inept. So, Google releases an add-on Desktop search utility that does a better job. Then, Microsoft releases an ADD-ON FOR THE PROGRAM THEY CREATED INSTEAD OF FIXING THE THING THEY MADE IN THE FIRST PLACE. That last part is the thing I don't understand.
I dont care for the toolbar (I use Firefox anyway), but the little taskbar search button is quite handy. I just type, and see the results right there. This gets a thumbs up from me, whereas I didn't much care for GDS or Copernic.
abc
Wow, if they keep on improving it so much maybe there will be some reason for me to switch! Oh wait, never mind, IE doesn't run natively on Linux.
But seriously, there are so many great features on Linux native browsers... those stuck with IE don't even know what they're missing. With Firebird, we have not just pop-up blocking, but also Adblock (http://adblock.mozilla.org) which prevents regular ads, too. We have spell checking in fill-in forms in Konqueror (see, this post has no spelling errors!) And that's in addition to all the other well-known benefits of these browsers, like tabbed browsing and safety from all the various IE exploits.
I'm not a snotty power-user or anything; but, I know where I put my files and how to find things with a minimum of effort.
/.
I feel like the functionality afforded by these toolbars, and the need for that functionality is indicative of a lack of basic skills from a whole lot of everyday computer users.
The ability to quickly find information; whether it's a user's own files, or some online resource should be a basic bit of functionality within systems as well as a basic skill users should possess.
I know this is pointless, but hey, this is
Push the envelope. Watch it bend. -Tool
Just Firefox alone and nothing else has blocked out all my bad popups, at the same time intuitively knowing which pop-ups to allow. Other people's mileage may vary depending on the sites they go to I guess.
The only exception was what must have been a slick piece of programming by the Chapman Bros. I don't get it; the biggest Internet advertising companies can't find a way past Firefox's built in blocker, yet some people who run a web cartoon figured it out? I must be missing something...
Now, if you're talking about IE... yeah a couple (million) popups make it here and there, even after installing SP2. I like Firefox much, much more than IE. The popup blocking, the add ins, the options menu, the way it doesn't pretend to be loading a page when it's not, the fact that it holds toolbar buttons, the web address bar, and a search bar all on the same row, and anything else I forgot about. Sometimes, just seeing that big blue E pisses me off for some reason. (Keep in mind that I use quite a few Microsoft products... well, Windows and MSN anyway.)
And about college freshies with no tech skills... they will remind you why Microsoft is doing so well and why spyware companies can convince millions of people to actually want to download their product for some emoticon toolbar, or because they saw a popup that said "Your computer is in danger! Download this right away!!!". It makes me a bit sick thinking about it, yet they're always so good at using MSN.
"When the atomic bomb goes off there's devastation...but when the atomic bong goes off there's celebraaaaation!"
"...also includes features like search term highlighting in web pages, auto-completing of forms, and a pop-up blocker."
Consirdering the fact that most every Internet related company has released their own toolbars with these exact features, do we really need to point them out anymore? Just the word 'toolbar' tells me right off that this is not something I need...
I've had a pop up blocker installed for a very long time. It's called Opera. If you are talking about Internet Explorer, I don't currently, and never have installed a pop up blocker for IE. I just don't use it.
My last windows machine died on me before SP2 but Ive had experience with it on family and friends machines. Ive never had much use for search bars and I think they invade on privacy secretly. Course that may just be me and my conspiracy theory clogged mind. Seems like they are too hard to get rid of once you do install them. I dont like software that is hard to get rid of. I dont want pieces of an application scattered all over my HD. I also dont want to bolt anything onto my operating system, thats why Apples Tiger is so attractive, spotlight is easy for developers to combine into their applications and easy for the user to manipulate, and its built right into the operating system as a real dependable feature, like Apples spell check. Honestly how many people have that many files that they need an instant results search of files? I have lots of files but I typically know where they are. The only time I have trouble is when Im trying to find a picture in my iPhoto folder. Hopefully the naming is a feature that Apple will remedy with the next release of iLife.
Abandon all hope ye who enter here...
Can anyone tell me why the MS Desktop Search insists on trying to get out to the Internet every 20 minutes? I wasn't aware that I needed to search the Internet to find something located on my computer. The Google desktop search never did this...this is why people are skeptical of MS. They keep their users in the dark...
I'd personally love to see google add an option to have the search bar on the taskbar.
Also it would be nice to see them add search plugin supports for supporting more filetypes.
Which is funny because I would think Firefox more than exceeds IE 5.01
itadakimasu
Why is this even such big news? Microsoft releases a file searching tool!!! Am I supposed to be impressed? I mean, isn't there a file search tool already in Windows?! Granted, it's dog slow and maybe this new tool is better, but I just don't understand why MS making a file searching tool to compete with its own Windows File Find makes sense.
One thing about microsoft. If you use their popup blocker, sooner or later, someone will give them enough money to bypass it. I'd say I don't trust them further then I can spit, but that would be a lie, because I can spit alot further then I trust microsoft.
:)
Of course I don't have a problem with pop-ups these days. Mozilla/firefox on linux keeps them at bay.
Remember the good old days when, even on Linux, you get to the wrong popup site, and the only solution was pkill mozilla? Poor windows users had to power off! Of course they were loaded with spyware after that. The asshole who was doing that had seirratradingpost.com, and I seem to always misspell that url. That's when I started managing my bookmarks better
I take no responsibility for what I say. Even though I'm never wrong
Since there's basically no chance in hell that I'm going to install a beta toolbar from Microsoft or anyone else, I decided to follow the Online Tour. I get to the second page and see the example search for 'beatles' revealing "Beatles - Let it be.wma". Out of absolute shear coincidence, I had just come back from a nasty Statistics final and was listening at that very moment to The Beatles' "Let It Be".
I've never gone scurrying for my tinfoil hat so frantically in my life.
> for those who don't have Google Desktop Search > or similar software running already
I like your reasoning. Since my computer has IE, why should I or others use other browser? Makes sense, right?
...yet complaining, we're seeing that bad publicity is still actually good publicity. Everyone will be talking about the new ms search bar and everyone will know all about it. If you really don't like it, don't talk about it. Pretend it doesn't exist.
Reality is nothing but a collective hunch.
I tried it out and though that it was a good program, similar to the Google Desktop Search, until it started crashing my Outlook. Kept getting errors within Outlook that I could not view certain folders because another program that had them opened had crashed. After a couple of Outlook restarts, it got to the point where Outlook would not start at all. It would just freeze at the opening screen. I did like the ability to tell it what folders to search, a feature that Google search is sorely lacking. Of the four search programs I've tried in depth (Google Desktop, MSN Desktop, Copernic, and dtSearch), dtSearch seemed to work the best overall, though there were still files on my server that would crash it during the indexing phase. Copernic did almost as well on indexing, but would frequently crash while searching. Generally, the program seemed fragile. You know, those programs that you can't rely on because they crash way too often that it's hardly worth using them. Google was good, but useless since I couldn't customize it at all. MSN was generally good, but seemed to have a lot of problems related to indexing Outlook e-mail messages. Can someone please come out with a decent desktop search program that understands lots of file formats, does not crash during indexing, do not crash during searching, and works well with Outlook and Outlook Express and other e-mail programs?
It must be degrading for Microsoft to always get the sloppy seconds. I can't remember one story in the last few months that they have gotten the first crack at something new.
But, then again, what's new?
If you click on it and tell it to "Install..." it pops up the annoying dialog that it used to show pre-SP2, with one very nice addition: a "don't install controls from this publisher, ever" button.
Whoever corrects a mocker invites insult;
whoever rebukes a wicked man incurs abuse.
--Proverbs 9:7
Why waste time with IE just get firefox and google desktop search.
Considering how much traffic coming from Windows a TCP sniffer catches, I would be VERY afraid of installing this. Toolbar call home, call home...
Simpy
Is there anything like this for KDE or Gnome, either in the works or finished?
Before everyone is so quick to judge the google desktop search as a service that everyone should admire and love, you should be aware that it does it's own questionably shady things.
It was discovered by a friend of mine (who works on one of the available anti-spyware packages for windows) that the google toolbar basicly hijacks winsock for some unknown reason in order to operate. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't trust anything that is a Layered Service Privider (LSP) hijacker. At this time, we're not sure what it is using it for, but one thing is clear. It shouldn't need to wedge itself in there in order to operate.
It will be interesting to see if the Microsoft variant does something similar.
BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
when to expect the OS X version.
I've not stuck my head into the modern Windows world for a while now, so I've got a question. I keep seeing this world "toolbar" bandied about in a way that is strange and foreign to me.
When I hear "toolbar" I think of one of the floating windoids that applications put tools and frequently used buttons on, like all that screen-hogging crap at the top of every MS application's default layout. I suppose the navigation bar and buttons, bookmarks, tabs, etc at the top of a browser also counts.
But how exactly does one "install" a toolbar into another application? And how does a "toolbar" do anything like install spyware, or other things that are not editing tools or at least some sort of button? I'm confused.
-Forrest Cameranesi, Geek of all Trades
"I am Sam. Sam I am. I do not like trolls, flames, or spam."
Regardless of whether you like their business practices or not, I'd have to say having 80%+ share of the desktop and office suit market qualifies it as a market leader.
This is not even counting some of the really innovative stuff Microsoft R&D does.
Biggest piece of crap Taking up useless space on my users hard drives.
Just installed and tested with a computer has 80G data. Here are some comments: The indexing process is fast but simple, it doesn't index the content of a lot of widely used data format such as PDF, chm AND even .cvs(interesting, man.. it is just text file). But the good thing is it allows per-directory-based index control, well, pretty handy, so you can just index the ones you want. Comparing to google desktop, MS-desktop looks certainly nicer, but still, the index is still too simple, and it doesn't even index the metadata of the files properly :(. Now I am using google desktop, its file content indexing is pretty fast and completed . However spotlight in OSX 10.4(on my Mac) is even better (both interface and function wise).
Let the war start!! :)
Taskbar
Integrated web/file browser
Start menu
Position of minimize/maximize buttons
Print dialogs
Save dialogs
"Show Desktop" button defaulted in lower-left of taskbar
Etc.
Oh, wait, those are all the things KDE and GNOME rip off from Windows while meanwhile people bitch about Windows!
People bitched when SP2 came out and all those great features like popup blocking weren't available for previous versions of IE.
Microsoft releases a toolbar for it and suddenly it's, "Why have it? SP2 already has that!"
Am I the only one who finds it funny that Google released Google Desktop partially to compensate for Microsoft's slow and crappy Windows Search feature, and now Microsoft is releasing their own program to compensate for their own crappy Windows Search feature?
Next!
I installed it and left my machine alone for three hours. Upon returning, I created a text file and added the text "bicycle" to it, saved it to my desktop, then tried to find bicycle. It didn't find it. Then I renamed the file to "bicycle" and searched for bicycle again, and it didn't find it. Does this thing not do live updates? If it searches what it knew about after the last index, it's no better than locate.
Reminds me of something that happened years ago. Had IE and Netscape open at the same time. I left the room, and when I came back, netscape had crashed. I swear IE murdered it.
printf("Goodbye cruel world!\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b");
I wish I could check out its local computer search functionality, but it won't install on Windows Server 2003.
But I saw on Mozillazine that the just released Copernic Desktop Search 1.2 supports Mozilla Firefox. So I'm checking that out now, and it seem pretty cool.
I hope Google updates there desktop search soon to index Firefox's history as well as more file formats such as PDF and OpenOffice.org files.
Phillip
I would rather not install it, but it does has the functionality to search on network drives too, which would come very handy when someone says to me "It's on the server" :)
Google, when are you putting this feature in?
A pop-up blocker from MSN? That's like stopping someone from hitting you with a hammer, then stabbing yourself in the foot!
I actually have mixed feelings about this one. Microsoft have included some kind of Find tool in Windows almost since Windows was first created -- or at least since Windows 95.
Sure, this is desktop search rather than file search. It has a few more features, it looks a bit different, and it's a bit more intelligent. But Microsoft have been trying to do this with their find tool and make it more natural for a long time... at least back to the time when they changed from their standard dialog box to a more web-like look and feel. Someone else may have got there first, but I don't think that's a clear and definite reason to prevent Microsoft from bundling their own effort.
I can understand it for something like a web browser, for which Microsoft only embedded in their operating system to lock out Netscape and gain control. But a desktop find tool? That belongs as part of a decent desktop. I'd expect some kind of find tool to be included in KDE and Gnome, and I'd expect it in Windows. Perhaps it's not part of a raw operating system, but Windows has always been an OS plus desktop manager. (Love it or hate it that way.) The competitors knew what they were competing against, and decided to go ahead anyway.
You have to draw a line somewhere, and I don't think it's enough just to say that any other business might be damaged no matter where, when or how it formed. Should Microsoft stop bundling its own menu widgets if someone else builds a third party business out of it? What about all the virus protection companies whose businesses would collapse if Microsoft successfully tighened its security? Surely it's silly to claim that Microsoft should be legally required to continue releasing a shoddy OS so that others don't go out of business.
I'm not sure exactly where to draw the line, but to me it seems that a desktop search tool would be borderline at best. It seems like a logical component to bundle with any desktop environment, which Windows is.
...the photocopying process (xerography) is named for them http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=xerograph y ...or is it the other way around?
Ignorance is curable, stupid is forever.
exploits?
Imagine if someone exploits this program and reveals all their passwords etc.
Im surprised they didnt make 'secure' a point of the features of it.
..is; how would this help me in my search for pr0n?!
I think Google should start writing a tool wich uninstalls Windows. Yahoo and Microsoft will start doing the same as well.
a) A desktop file search
b) A popup blocker
c) Autocomplete
Does anybody else notice that Microsoft is trying to release better versions of software that they ALREADY made (and not to well, aparently)?
Electrons are free; it is moving them that becomes expensive.
It may be made by Microsoft but the program is better than Google. You can actually interact with your search results similar to the way you could from Windows Explorer from a folder or what not. That is something that had annoyed me with Google's. SOmetimes I want to find every file that has something in it to delete them all yet to do so I have to use the crappy search functionality built into Windows. It also searchs more things (contacts in Outlook is an example). I may not like the company behind it but you can't say that they didn't do a better job this time. Hopefully this just convinces others to upgrade and innovate more.
I was also laughing when I read Robert Scobles blog, where he was drumming/hyping up this new "cool tool" from MS. Then I also tried it for 2 minutes and started laughing: Google Desktop doppelganger-hack that's uber-tied into your Windows/IE and that uninstalls Google Toolbar from IE. Nice.
At MSDN Channel9 and Scobles blog everyone is saying "wow" this thing is so cool, we made in couple of months, the team who did this started in April, we roxors! Only thing MSN Toolbar Suite proves is that MS is able to copycat someone elses idea in 6 months and call it their own (again).
Microsoft has always been a nerd company. Their books about how to program and do a project are famous. Their organisation is top. Their people are top. They don't have the fast-growing shares and organisation of the past, but they are still very attractive.
They are weak on new ideas - they have always been. But when they take over an idea they do it with a perfectionist zeal that usually sooner or later leaves the competition in the dust.
At the moment they have a defensive period in which they have to invest much in making their products more secure. This won't bring them much money, but sooner or later they will find a new markets to grow in.
I still hope that some day a company will make a toolbar that offers cards, emoticons and all the other gadgets that seduce people to install those nasty adware products.
It's quite convenient for MS to sit and see what works, then create their own, and with their dominance in desktop OS, they can easily claim a huge chunk of the desktop-suite market share overnight.
Sadly, this is exactly what is happening with FireFox. With all this excitement around FF I've been surprised so many people can't see the fact that as long as IE is bundled with Windows, any other browser just can't gain a significant market share. Starting FF requires the user first to download and install the software. Starting IE requires the user to push "the blue internet-button". Sadly, for many users IE is "The internet".
If you have the indexing service enabled in Win2K or XP, open the search window and in "A word or phrase in the file" input box type "!meeting". You'll instantly see the files with the word "meeting" in them. If you don't have the service enabled, a message box appears saying the volumes have to be indexed.
So in that same vein when my Internet Explorer crashes you're suggesting Netscape/Mozilla is responsible?
Backup not found: (A)bort (R)etry (P)anic
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=20214
Really crazy
IE/MSN can go ___ themselves. I'm tired of the security holes. I've switched to Firefox, and I'm never coming back. IE used to be fast. That was the main reason I left Netscape. But now, with all the firewall, anti-popup, anti-advertisement, anti-script crap that's necessary to run IE, it's NOT worth it.
Firefox, with a few extensions blows IE away.
Hopefully the rest of the planet tells MS/MSN to go ____ themselves.
-- No sig for you!
Try checking regular users. They'll use anything with a shiny microsoft-approved icon. even msn-explorer.
Not Buzzword 2.0 compliant. Please speak english.
> Didn't do that for me, Google toolbar (and Google Desktop) is still there and working fine.
They fixed it. Download the patch.
I've stopped caring about any new products that Microsoft releases. There is nothing that MS can do to make me change my mind and uninstall the Google toolbar. Or their Desktop Search.
SecNews has issued a significant flaw in Microsoft's toolbar suite.
.
The exposure . . . blah
Microsoft responded . . . beta version.
Pundits such as Paul Thurrott lauded the quick response dismissing . . . Yahoo too had exposure. Google was solid but is still in beta mode.
If Google (or anyone of those unknowns who made a similar program earlier) could patent the idea of desktop index-based search, Yahoo!, Microsoft and everyone else would be unable to offer a competing product. That means we would not get a perfectly useful desktop-search product in 2006 (whatever it will be).
Future Wiki -- If you don't think about the future, you cannot have one.
Installed it and ran a few desktop searches and all it found was pictures and videos of porn.
i thought they already had one in the form of the indexing service for xp?
Well... is called Spotlight and will be in the next version of Mac OS X
The package said "Windows XP or better. Pentium Class Processor or better"... So I got a Mac with OS X
What ever happened to knowing how to find a clearly named file in a relevantly named directory? And creating a readme file explaining a folder's contents always worked well for me when I'd troll a long forgotten folder and find some long forgotten file and what its value was to me at the time. But I guess it's more efficient to download yet one more piece of hacker-bait MS software to comprimise your system, just to more easily find that milfspreadwide.jpg you really need to wank off to.
First we here complaints that Microsoft's built in FIND sucks, and we hope Google comes to the rescue. The we complain when Microsoft upgrades their Find utility.
I hated XP's FIND feature. NT 4.0's was okay. Outlook's built in FILE search find utility is the best Microsoft written find utility I've found so far.
I've tried Google's desktop search and didn't like it. If it can't search my network drives, where all my data is, then it is of no use to me.
I was hopefull that WinFS would fill this void, but that is not to be. Hopefuly this new product will fill this void.
... to fuck customers just gets larger and larger.
ardustry
Innovation, baby!
Yeah, $12,000,000,000 a month will buy you this type of serious innovation. Hey, it isn't easy to deny a given javascript function on demand, you know. That's the reason it took Microsoft 3 years to implement it.
Damn I really want this toolbar thinghy, but alas it doesn't work with my firefox web browser.
Honestly, I have never seen a piece of software from Microsoft that was anywhere near to being a smooth, seamless solution.
They always chop something together. Then they release it. Then they sort out the major bugs. Then they add silly features and repeat the last two steps until nobody cares about the product anymore.
Yeah, but it wouldn't be murder, it would be euthanasia
printf("Goodbye cruel world!\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b");
For you code monkeys out there... this definitely kicks Google Desktop in that it searches all files... not just certain types. Very nice to be able to search all code on the machine now.
...Suite!
LRC, the best-read libertarian site on the web
I've ben using (and still do) Web Washer a JS/Popup/Ad blocking proxy tool. Nice thing about it is tht it works for any browser. Un-nice thing is that it is not too website specific.
Contrary to popular belief, coding is not all free blow-jobs and beer. Those things cost MONEY!
It was a bug, this is beta software, it's been fixed, there is no conspiracy, you can stop the knee-jerking before your leg flys off and hits someone in the eye now...
Moderators, please stop moderating when you're stoned! You obviously didn't catch the sarcasm in the parent post. + Funny
SEO Copywriter. Just Say ON
I don't know, really... It installed just fine (though it required me to install SP4 for Win2k). Installation process was straightforward, I could check whether I want to report stats to MS or not. It warned me that it won't search mail if I don't use Outlook, etc., but allowed me to proceed.
:)
:) But it looks good enough for a beta and I might use it instead of Google Desktop (which I don't even want to try) or Yahoo product, which is not released yet.
I could not change the target directory for the installation and where to store the index, but other than that I don't have many complaints about the available options. You can choose what folders to index, what the IE toolbar should include and some other minor stuff.
Indexing worked rather fast - about 20-25 minutes for a drive with 30000 files (15 Gb total). The computer was very responsive during that time too. The toolbar was added to the taskbar, it could be resized, moved, hidden and stuff. Not obtrusive, has a keyboard shortcut for it. Searches in both English and Russian (and probably all other languages as well).
It searches text files, Word documents, Excel spreadsheets and Web pages. It also searches some metadata in images, films and music, as well as all filenames. The results are presented in a rather nice way (a window appears above the toolbar) that can be navigated using mouse or keyboard. Context menus work on the results (so images can be previewed using a shell extension like PicaView, for example).
For websearch it uses the default browser (I have Opera), though for desktop search it uses IE (if you want see more results than are displayed in the small search windows). FUCK, THIS FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT JUST CRASHED ON ME!! Well, I searched for my name (4000) results and then tried to scroll the results and IE crashed... It also has a small bug that when IE opens, you need to manually click on search desktop, though the search query is copied for you already. There are two text fields - one in the IE toolbar and one on the page, but only the toolbar works, apparently.
Well, this is certainly a beta, I'll go and submit a bug report.
Future Wiki -- If you don't think about the future, you cannot have one.
why would anyone want a tool from microsoft or google to search their desktop. People, the more pointless software you install, the more pointless it is to combat the threat of commercial agenda implementations such as spyware and other proprietary software.
the only permanence in existence, is the impermanence of existence.
Gheez, Louise! Just get X1, http://www.x1.com. Pay around $75 and you get an integrated viewer with search results that are instantaneous. Can index shared network drives, too. This is the technology that Yahoo will integrate in its search tool if you want to wait for it next year.
-- I fear explanations explanatory of things explained.