Back from scouring the net, reading Desktop Search reviews and views.
Spent some more time testing the various searches. What I'm finding is:
Pretend Desktop Search. Just NET search with a little less data.
Their preview windows that are too tiny to be useful. With this search
you'll see all the matches up on the screen and fast. Note-pad / Scratch-pad
capabilities are a must. Most searches have this option. I stash notes all the time.
When reviewers quote search speed, they are way way off base.
Saying they have found 2,350,000+ results in .023 sec
Nothing is found until it is up on the screen and easily
viewable. That is where, this program blows their doors off.
Desktop search is about finding your data Fast.
With this program I can be in and out of my notes, in a handfull of seconds.
Net Search needed indexing so they can quickly find data among
billions of pages. For a single computer, this is Over-Kill. A good reader
can read 3 Gig in a year, going 24 X 365. Personal search textual info
will rarely get larger than that. I seldom search data that I havn't read
or notes that aren't mine. Why would I? Is indexing really necessary?
That nasty indexing step, limits search in a number of ways.
For those techies that talk about indexing hundreds of thousands of files.
Few if any of those files are ever printed or re-sent. Just merge them and
store the originals somewhere else. Why have a messy directory.
Find all your data, not just some of it. Large text files can't be indexed,
by the pretenders. They range from 2M to 80M maximum file size limit.
Not much fun in these so called serious searches. No Random to be seen.
No large font scrolling text, no slow-motion video.
Just MetaData that is beyond most casual users capabilities. But not now.
This search allows people to create their own MetaData.
Articles go on and on about security. Where does this rank with the user
that has his-or-her data backed up. Last, or next to last. OMG somebody
is going to read my old email and look at the family photo album.
Indexed desktop search, seem to hog computer resources.
When my computer is on, I'm usually using it. I've read a number
of complaints about the background indexing. In most cases, the
indexing function can be turned off and updated anytime.
They want you to keep all your data eggs in their basket. With desktop search.
The KISS principle (Keep It Simple Stupid) strongly applies. The less formats
the better. Don't be encouraged by the 200+ types of data formats they claim
to search. I use mpg, txt, mp3, jpg, bmp and very few others. For those who
feel their data prowess is determined by the number of different formats.
Good luck. You'll need it, to keep your data in the long run.
In looking for desktop search, there are almost no examples, of how or why
anybody would use Search. I guess I'm one of the few that do.
-Used as a context spell checker. See how the words are used in context of
my own selection. My text file has weird, strange, psychic, unexpected,
mystics text info. See results in interesting context.
-I save a jpg (screen capture) of every website that I bookmark, then take a copy
of the text on the home page at the same time.
-I do daily notes, todo list updates and info lookups.
-Cut and paste interesting notes and search material from the net.
-Move my inbox and sent mail to my *.txt files.
-I check these files often when making new contacts.
-Auto-catalogue and play my recent video. Then randomly play video from
what's currently on the C: disk. Or a screen saver playing the 5000+ family
album pictures.
-Burn a copy of the exe on DVD backups set to autorun, showing the videos.
I regularly burn 2 or 3 DVD's backups to free up space on my hard drive.
-When I come across detailed steps or interesting features, I'll do a
screen capture and save that as a jpg. Maybe even using paint to draw
a red circle around the object of interest.
-On a previous job I had 2000+ screen captures (in 10 months) of totals,
exceptions and complex procedure steps.
-Routinely add a "search for: THIS STRING" to my notes file. For any search
string that provided results.
If you don't have lots of interesting pictures, text, video or music
then you probably don't need desktop search. Yet....
Conclusion:
They are Net Search masquerading as Desktop Search Engines.
There is only one desktop search - Spectate Swamp.
So it's impossible to have a desktop search showdown. They have nothing to show.
They don't do desktop search, they don't know desktop search.
I'll do more Desktop Search video demos and hound any "Desktop Search" threads I find.
Grab a copy and check it out:
http://www.topshareware.com/Spectate...load-42932.htm
