Desktop Search engine - a recomnendation

I've tried Google, MSn's Windows Desktop Search, and
Copernic. Copernic is the most user friendly and effective, IMHO.
Saves me a lot of time to locate old files very fast!
Hope it helps.

 

what des IMHO mean? same with IMO or w/e else that has those sam letters???

 

Can you link us to Copernic? I'm not familiar with that.

IMHO = In My Humble Opinion

 

Here's the Link:

http://www.copernic.com/en/products/desktop-search/index.html

 

I can ditto that on the Copernic. Been using it for two years and it blows away Google, Yahoo and all others.

Somewhere on that web link above is a Beta 2 version as well, if you poke around.

 

for some reason i always thought it was 'In My Honest Opinion'; yours makes more sense.

 

Yep.

Sometimes people write "IMNSHO"....

 

Yeah, same here. That's what I mean when I use it. Oh well...

I used MSN Desktop Search before and found it to be pretty good and responsive, but only if you were searching for unique files. Searching for something like README would of course bring up a ton of responses, and the results window was not very user friendly at all. That's IMHO...

 

mac Clone SpotLight (macSearch)
http://landvermesser.tripod.com/MacSearch.html

cheers ...

 

I've been using Effective File Search for some time now. I like this better than all the above mentioned search apps (even though I had to pay for it) due to it's very simple interface and complete lack of eye-candy and it's ability to search at blazing speeds WITHOUT having to index the harddrive(s).
http://www.sowsoft.com/efsxp-sc.htm

If you don't want to pay for a search app, I would suggest Locate. It's open source, has a similar simple interface to EFS, and bloody fast as well. It does, however, need to index the harddrive.
http://www.donationcoder.com/MiniReviews/Locate/

 

Isn't this a moot point? Vista will have search built-in. If it is as good as Spotlight, I see no reason for 3rd party apps. Of course I suppose you would need something until Vista comes out.

 

This program started out as a simple full-text search.

The flowchart, to do the line wrap and match hi-lights
took 3 days. It worked like a charm. (see the links
to these charts below)

Step 1 complete. Search and display text results.

Next was the ability to search text and call up pictures.
When a match was found on a line and the following line had
the path to a picture, then that picture was displayed.

We scanned in and cataloged 5000+ family pictures and
used that as a test base.

Changes were made to view these pictures as a screen saver.
Then with a random option, because sequential became boring fast.

Then came VIDEO and Music. Being able to start and stop
anywhere in a video clip, slow motion and freeze frame
are the main features. I've had a mini dvd camcorder for
4 years now. Desktop Search makes computers and video fun.

The very early version (1999) of the search has way less
functionality but is valuable as a stripped down search.
(Source code documentation, details the evolution of this program)

To make this app a NET search, or create Linux, Mac and C versions
should be quite simple. There are just 10,000 lines of Visual Basic 5
code, with lots of comments and deactivated testing lines. A URL would
be loaded instead of a picture.

It's very scalable. It currently runs as a background job.
A few thousand copies searching designated data sections,
should handle the largest of data searches.

All my notes, emails and net clippings since 1999 amount to 75M
At 20,000,000 cps it takes just over 3 seconds. (4 year old laptop)

Another must have feature of any Desktop Search is notepad capabilities.
If you don't keep notes what do you keep?

Before computer search, people had recipe books, phone and address books.
They kept notes short and to the point. When looking for something they
had to read / scan the text. With computer search, you can keep much more
detailed notes and store it all, in one file if you like.

Keep every bit of printed information that is worthwhile. It won't
amount to all that much. Mine's next to nothing at 75M. No need for
indexing desktop search; like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft.

Having all your photos, music and telephone videos readily available
and software to play random selections can be entertaining. It's
quick to add search detail for these files or video segments. It can
flash through photos at 10 per second and faster. Sample your videos,
music, pictures and text in the same screen saver.

This app is relatively SECURE for text. In display mode the text can
not be cut or copied. (The extract capability would have to be disabled.)
Having the original file encrypted and the decrytion taking place on the fly
adds to security.

Other features are: Merge, Search and Replace, Selected photo or song
to copy, directory list, differences between 2 files and some lesser
functions that make searching useful.

I have looked at some of the others. The more I looked the more
I loved this desktop search. The thing I like most is that all my
searches can be done in full text mode. With search, it is ALWAYS
the context one is looking for. I know the name "Joe Smith" when
I search. It is his phone# or a person I met with him that I am
interested in. Context context context. The other searches give
you gibberish from their index files, before you see the real data.

This search is leading the pack in simplicity, expandability, usefulness
and speed. Gets the data up on the screen fast.

Shortly I'll be explaining and demonstrating this Search using VIDEO;
from the very early source code and Flowcharts to the most recent features.

If this Search makes it to the next level and becomes a Net Search, with
all it's multimedia capabilities then look out, to the rest. Random video,
random music, random jokes, excitement.

Flowcharts page 1 and 2 below:

http://www.telusplanet.net/public/stonedan/pict01.jpg

http://www.telusplanet.net/public/stonedan/pict02.jpg

Visit the home page below for a copy of the EXE and more details:
http://www.telusplanet.net/public/stonedan/