Desktop Search Experiences
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I really like a lot of the Google products but I had to uninstall their desktop search after struggling with it for 6 months. First of all I was really turned off that when I organize my emails in Outlook it no longer knows where they are. That seems pretty basic to me. Email search is one of my biggest uses so this really was a step in the wrong direction for me. I also didn't care for the web interface. I just couldn't find enough power user features. I'm sure they are there but even trying a simple thing like searching within a specific folder was hard to find. The resource use for Google didn't seem to bother my day to day work. Maybe my machine was fast enough or had enough RAM for it not to make a difference. I installed Copernic not expecting a whole lot and have been using it for the past 2 months. I chose it because it seemed to be the next best one on everyones list. I have to say I'm very happy. I haven't been using it a long time yet so I haven't noticed any missing or poorly implemented features. Selecting which types of files to search, where to search, etc is all very easy to find and usage as a whole is a breeze. So far it's found anything I needed quickly and easily. Anyway, that's been my experience.
MattPenner wrote:
I really like a lot of the Google products
Same here. I use a lot of their online stuff.
MattPenner wrote:
I had to uninstall their desktop search after struggling with it for 6 months.
I didn't last anywhere near as long as that! Tried it for about two weeks at work. Tried it for just a few days at home. Resource usage on my work PC was OK but on my home PC everything tended to grind to a halt. Not sure why. My home PC has the same amount of RAM.
MattPenner wrote:
I also didn't care for the web interface.
Same here. Copernic isn't perfect. But I like the fact that it seems more focused on doing one thing and doing it well. I have run into one glitch on my home PC. There I used (until a week ago) Outlook Express. When I upgraded from CDS 2.04 to later versions I could no longer double-click on an email and have OE launch. But I've just switched to Windows Live Mail and it can't index that. They told me that there are no current plans to index it. That's why I tried WDS and that is hopeless besides being a resource hog. OTOH, because WLM leaves OE intact I'm still able to use CDS to search my old OE mails. I may try WDS again if they provide another update for it. They haven't done so for some time.
Kevin
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Before going to Vista, I used copernic as well. I didn't like the "add-on" Microsoft search to XP, nor was I particularly fond of googles desktop search. Since going to Vista, however, I find search to be one of Vista's best features. It's unobtrusive, and doesn't seem to take any CPU away from important tasks. What's better, Office 2007 integrates with it, so it's a breeze to search for emails within outlook.
-- Where are we going? And why am I in this handbasket?
I have tried quite a few desktop search tools and I much prefer Mo-Search (http://www.meauxsoft.com/21701/index.html[^]. Its freeware, has an integrated file viewer, shell integration, works well on source code, has ranked results (pretty cool!) and can search sub-directories or your whole computer. It's also pretty fast and easy to use. It does *NOT* search email, but that is great with me b/c I prefer lookout for email searching.