Everybody knows how difficult can be to find a file, or an old
e-mail
or even a picture in a computer overcrowded by a huge amount of
archived files and documents. And how quickly any computer can pile up
any kind of stuff, either useful or not, recent or old.
But technology will save us all! A new family of software programs
is
now available to overcome the problem of searching files: they are the
desktop search programs, and the most popular are Google, Microsoft,
Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, AOL and the newcomer Blinkx.
These programs are downloadable for free, easy to install and use
and
do their job quickly and effectively. Once installed,the desktop search
program will start indexing all the contents of your computer:
sometimes, this operation requires hours. After indexing, you can start
using the program by simply clicking on the icon appearing on the
toolbar.
But let's have a closer look at them.
GOOGLE
Google Desktop Search (downloadable at www.desktop.google.com) looks
for Word and Excel files, e-mail messages and also audio and video
files. It works as if you typed a word in Google on the Internet, and
what's more, every time you look for something in the Internet using
Google, it also searches your computer and shows the relevant objects
as well.
YAHOO
Yahoo Desktop Search (downloadable at www.desktop.yahoo.com) offers
similar features, but has a different look-and-feel. When you click on
the icon on the toolbar, a large windows opens: on the top toolbar it
features a search box to input the name of the file you are looking
for, and the fields which you can choose to carry out the search in,
namely Email - Attachments - Contacts - Files - Pictures - Music - All.
On the left hand, a preview window enables the user to preview the
contents of the searched file(s). It can also find .zip files, but
cannot open them for preview.
MICROSOFT
Microsoft Desktop Search program (downloadable at
www.beta.toolbar.msn.com) in addition to look for files, images etc.
also examines the metadata in multimedia files. It is part of a new MSN
Toolbar and also enables you to create separate indexes for separate
accounts. That is to say, you can hide certain files if you do not wish
to share their contents with other users.
ASK JEEVES
Ask Jeeves Desktop Search program (downloadable at
www.askjeeves.com)
also - like Yahoo - has a separate preview window to display files.
AOL
AOL Desktop Search program (downloadable at www.aol.com) is not
currently released yet, but it will be part of an AOL free browser.
BLINKX
You can download this program at www.blinkx.com. Once dowloaded, it
places an icon on your screen: every time it finds something relevant
to your search, the icon will blink.
The unique feature of this program is that it only looks for files
that
are relevant to your current job on the computer.
I downloaded either Google and Yahoo desktop search programs and I
use
them both very often. I find them effective, quick, easy to use. In my
opinion, I find Yahoo Desktop Search program better and provided with
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