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Desktop Search Engines Compared

Posted by timothy on from the operating-system-handicapped dept.

nutterButter writes "After Google created a stir with its desktop search engine, other engines gained more awareness in the public eye. Slate did a comparison of them and Google was not their top pick; Copernic was. I tried it - and am quite impressed."

9 of 361 comments (clear)

  1. Apple's coming out with something like this... by bennomatic · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It's called Mac OS X Tiger. If you've used iTunes, you know how good and how fast searching can be. It's going to be pretty awesome when it comes out.

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    The CB App. What's your 20?
    1. Re:Apple's coming out with something like this... by Shanep · · Score: 5, Informative

      It's called Mac OS X Tiger.

      Actually, it is called Spotlight.

      Which will be a part of Tiger, the latest upcoming version of Mac OSX.

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      War crimes, torture, lies, illegal spying... Would someone give Bush a blowjob, already, so he can be impeached?
  2. history search by FrenZon · · Score: 5, Informative

    The biggest use (and what makes it a necessity for me now) I have for a desktop search tool is searching for a webpage I partially remember visiting a few weeks ago, but need more information from. GDS indexes the content of all pages as you visit them, making finding them relatively easy - as far as I could tell (tested over half an hour), Copernic only indexed title and URL, which was of much less use.

    A minor point for the geekier here - GDS can also be activated using quicksearch URLs from IE or Firefox, which is handy for those used to getting everything from one field.

  3. the main problem i had with google by jeff+munkyfaces · · Score: 5, Interesting

    is that i can only open the file i search for!

    i planned to sort out my music collection - so i searched for an artist - 87 results.

    can i select them all and move them to a folder in one go? no.

    for this kind of thing it's useless - i wonder if i can with copernic..

  4. Some GNOME folks look to be working on it. by Chuck+Chunder · · Score: 5, Informative

    Beagle is a search tool that ransacks your personal information space to find whatever you're looking for. Beagle can search in many different domains.

    The latest edition of the Beagle newsletter has just been released.

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    Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
  5. Re:Linux anyone? by ken_devon · · Score: 5, Informative

    Wow. The timing on this article is uncanny. I installed Beagle yesterday, and I'm already addicted to it - it indexes documents, mail and web pages as they're accessed, and updates it search results in real time.

  6. Re:Why is desktop search so hot? by mOoZik · · Score: 5, Informative

    Actually, it CAN search inside of files, contrary to your post. The results can then be arranged by size, type, folder, date, etc. Isn't that enough?

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    A blog like any other.
  7. Newsflash by E+IS+mC(Square) · · Score: 5, Insightful

    slate is already sold to washington post. . and here

  8. Re:Linux anyone? by theantix · · Score: 5, Insightful

    To tell you the truth, I'm very glad that these sorts of companies don't yet write software for Linux. A free software solution like Beagle comes without spyware, doesn't send your information to their corporate masters, and doesn't shove ads down your throat or charge you money.

    Someday I'm sure that these crapware vendors will be producing their garbage for Linux, and dumb Linux users will be plagued with much the same sort of problems that windows users suffer today. It's almost a golden age now, knowing that the vast majority of Linux software is truly free libre software instead of the ugliness that freeware software will bring.

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    501 Not Implemented