Desktop Search Round-Up : part I, installation, first impressions
Thomas Menguy | October 23, 2005Ok, I have a big hard drive … sounds cool? Not that much cause I’ve a really hard time retreiving my data : I have over 700Mb of mails in outlook, Gigs of specifications and docs and many CVS trees full of source code…. Here comes the Desktop Search apps to my rescue. But which one is the right/best for me? So here we go for a round-up of the four main players : Copernice Desktop Search, Yahoo Desktop Search, Google Desktop Search, Windows Desktop Search
I’ve begun to use Copernic Desktop search few months ago: I’ve choosen this one after a short try of Google Desktop Search. I was happy with the results until I’ve discovered that some of my files were not correctly indexed, I’ve uninstalled, reinstalled everything went ok, but too late the worm was in the apple, I was no more confident in my beloved Copernic.
You can find MANY tests and impressions about desktop search, many reviews, and no clear winner seems to emerge. The most complete review I’ve found is this one from the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s e-Business Consortium. Uber-Review has a list of all the best reviews around, check it also … and here is their conclusion :
Three of these reviews give the highest marks to Copernic and another has it tied for the top score. So one can only assume that Copernic is doing something right. Therefore the Uber-Review Top Choice goes to Copernic. The #2 and #3 go to Yahoo and MSN respectively based on the number of times they finished in the top 3 in the reviews covered. You have to remember none of these are perfect. In fact, I think in the age of high powered computers and with operating systems sleeker than ever that desktop search should never have been required in the first place.
Copernic seems to have an edge…but it is not a clear winner and have its shortcomings.
So, as I’m a little bit on the geeky side of the spectrum, I’ve decided this week-end to install four of the most known desktop search on my PC:
In this first part I’ll sum up my install, and the various tweaking I’ve made.
- Installing Copernic Desktop Search
Pretty straight forward : simply download the .exe, install … and go straight to the options/adanced and add the file extensions you want to be indexed, for me some source files types like .cxx, .hxx, .cc, .hh , some xml files of my own : they will be indexed as text files, you can also select the folders you want to index : NEAT. The index process begins automatically in the background, and new files are indexed as they are added/modified on you disk, same thing for your email (I use outlook, but thunderbird seems to be supported)
- Installing Yahoo Desktop Search
Really similar to Copernic : very few tweaking to do, but a big deception : no automatic index update when a file/email is modified…DO NOT forget, in the indexing options to check the “Delay Scan Up if PC in use”, else Yahoo Desktop Search is a real CPU Hog!
- Installing Google Desktop Search
Hum, ok the first phase is simple, but you’ll need to download many plugins to allows Google Desktop Search to index more file types : go directly to Larry’s GDS Plugins and pick the GMail, CHM, and above all the “any text” plugins : configure the “any text” one to index your files (for me files types like .cxx, .hxx, .cc, .hh , some xml files of my own ) and go to the official google plugin page to take the really needed TweakGDS which will allows you to tell GDS what files it has to index, which folders, etc….So to say the least it is far from being straightforward, as opposed to the other apps, anyway it is not a so big hassle, but reveal the lack of maturity of the product. An other issue : I have not found a way to make GDS index the content of PDF files … correction the new beta adds that and a cool little floating bar.
- Installing Windows Desktop Search
Ok, this one is the microsoft one : install is smooth (ok ok it clutters your IE with a tool bar…but wait it is a great one!) configuration easy … but many file types are missing, pdf can’t be indexed natively, until you find the Windows Add-Ins page and the Channel9 one. Take the zip/pdf/chm ones and here you go… to the options to tweak you settings and set the folder/mail to be indexed, and add your own file extensions. If your are also a palm guy checks the palm IFilter from Bloggit’s Journal. Installation is not as rough as GDS, but not simple either.
First Impressions and search results in Part II, stay tuned.
Thomas