Best Desktop Search Engine

[skippybangkok]

Anyone got any idea on the best Desktop search solution for searching files / mails on a PC? Used microsoft, seems stable, but hard to sub-search results. Yahoo has good ability to refine searches, but is slow and hangs alot, and Google desktop is not so good as you need to do alot of clicking.

any others worth a try ?

All are better than nothing, but still takes me a long time to dig out older infomration I need

[chingching]

i use locate32 extremely fast. u need to update the databases occassionally and that takes a while

[nikster]

Anyone got any idea on the best Desktop search solution for searching files / mails on a PC? Used microsoft, seems stable, but hard to sub-search results. Yahoo has good ability to refine searches, but is slow and hangs alot, and Google desktop is not so good as you need to do alot of clicking.

any others worth a try ?

All are better than nothing, but still takes me a long time to dig out older infomration I need

I find Google Desktop extremely fast, and no clicking at all!

- Hit Ctrl twice to get a search window right in the center of your screen - works just like cmd-space on OS X, and I think it's the best interface for searches. Zero clicking.

- Hit shift twice to show/hide gadgets. Google Gadgets are not all that useful but I use stock tickers sometime. It also adds a search bar to your task bar - I never use that though, I exclusively use Ctrl-Ctrl to use Google Desktop.

Good: Search is instant. No waiting. Advanced search options are pretty sophisticated.

Bad: Indexes seem to get out of sync. Edit: I just found there's a preference to "remove deleted items". Per default, it shows deleted files in the search results which I find a little... weird. And useless. I thought it was getting out of sync but apparently that's a feature?! Anyway - not sure if it gets out of sync now.

Interesting: The timeline. Shows you a complete time line for everything, or just for emails, just for files etc. I have used this on the odd occasion when I remembered the date I sent something to somebody but not the name.

I loved the ability to search YM archives with Yahoo but I also found it slow and unstable. It's gone now.

Edited April 6, 2007 by nikster

[cdnvic]

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is not a big fan:

EFF issues Google Desktop warning

Google has released a revamped version of its desktop search tool which introduces the ability to search the contents of one computer from another. Previous versions of the tool indexed files on user's PCs, but using the optional "Search Across Computers" facility in Google Desktop 3 temporarily stores text copies of searchable items on Google's own servers for up to 30 days.

Search Across Computers makes a range of files - including web histories, Microsoft Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, power point presentations as well as PDF files and text files in the My Documents folder - searchable from other computers. The contents of secure web pages are excluded from the list. Users would log on using their Google password can find data on files they've worked on regardless of which PC they used to produce them. Users can also exclude certain file types or locations from indexing.

Even so, privacy activists such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) have said the feature "greatly increases the risk to consumer privacy". It describes the facility as a gift to government snoops and a convenient "one-stop-shop for hackers" who've obtained a user's Google password. Users should avoid using Google Desktop 3, it advises.

Google argues that the growing use of multiple computers by users makes the feature useful. "Too many people are working across multiple computers now," Google vice president Marissa Mayer told USA Today. "This makes their lives easier."

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/02/10/go...vacy_kerfuffle/

Google concedes desktop security risk

Cross-computer file searching features in the latest version of Google desktop search tool represent an "unacceptable security risk" to large enterprises, analyst Gartner warns. Google concedes the analysts' concerns are valid but argues that large firms are free to control the application of the technology.

Google Desktop 3 beta introduces the ability to search the contents of one computer from another. Previous versions of the tool indexed files on users' PCs, but using the optional "Search Across Computers" facility in Google Desktop 3 temporarily stores text copies of searchable items on Google's own servers for up to 30 days - a move Gartner describes as "inauspicious".

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/02/21/google_desktop_risk/

[A_Traveller]

I've been using Copernic Desktop search for some while {18 months +} now and find it effective. The database creation takes a while but they all do that and once in place I've found it to be swift with dynamic indexing and light on resources.

Regards

Link

http://www.copernic.com/

[cdnvic]

I've been using Copernic since it's beta days and it rocks

Usually just use it to check search results though, haven't used it for desktop search much.

[skippybangkok]

yes, loaded Copernic too....... but the indexing is very very slow, and it goes on hold too for ages before continuing to index. the user interfae and speed is great though..... been indexing since last night, and only 13k documents indexed. another 150k to go. Does anyone know why its holds on indexing ?

Even tried adusting the settings, did not help much

[skippybangkok]

It indexed a total of 1000 records last night. Turned off all power saving functions and also the screen saver.......... any advice how to get it not to go into idle for yonks ?

[simcity]

I've been using Copernic Desktop search for some while {18 months +} now and find it effective. The database creation takes a while but they all do that and once in place I've found it to be swift with dynamic indexing and light on resources.

Regards

Link

http://www.copernic.com/

thk for the link , i let go google last week, i just download copernic , took 30 minutes to index , and look good !

[A_Traveller]

It indexed a total of 1000 records last night. Turned off all power saving functions and also the screen saver.......... any advice how to get it not to go into idle for yonks ?

In my experience 'idle' means it has completed the indexing process. Indexing does take time but you can use the program while it is building it. The default is to wait 2 minutes if not focused, 10 seconds if it is. You can configure from Tools -> Options.

It really does index through documents and so will 'read' pdfs docs etc.. Also standard integration with Outlook {I don't use that} can take a considerable time. Though with XP set to index on the fly once the database is complete then I find its activities transparent.

Regards

[skippybangkok]

Very very strange...... based on Google, I have something like 150k files to index. Today it has indexed another 1000....gone from 14 to 15 k...... so obviously there is more and it finds them bit by bit.

[A_Traveller]

Very very strange...... based on Google, I have something like 150k files to index. Today it has indexed another 1000....gone from 14 to 15 k...... so obviously there is more and it finds them bit by bit.

Hi,

150,000 files to index?

Regards

[raro]

I aso use Copernic and I am overall happy with the program. However, my recent version 2.02 is quite slow compared to the 1.x versions I used before.

I tried Google desktop search and found it also rather complicted to use and the Google account/password thing scraed me off.

[skippybangkok]

Well, un-installed, and re-installed and its indexing away. I have tons of archive folders in Outlook, and might not have ticked them as well ( its not selected by default, where as useless files on C drive are). Took random samples from the my documents, and seems to find them quite well.

Will need another night of indexing to complete all the archived folders.....

So far looks like the best in the market. Yahoo one was too buggy, google not as good.