Desktop Search worth using

[andrew247]

Is the google desktop search worth using...is it better than the built in Microsoft one?

[zima]

Check yourself.
It has very good uninstall in case you don't like it.

[andrew247]

OK...i will

[SpectateSwamp]

What desktop search should do.

Search text files
-----------------
context display or matching lines only.
hilited matches (max of 6 search elements)
hit counts for all elements searched.
character counts and elapsed times
no prompt box covering the results
fast, just hit enter enter enter (Keyboard friendly)
large font scrolling text 72pt (Screen saver for short stories/joke files)
Option to export the displayed results, to a results file.
(this allows for easy subsearches)

Search Video files
------------------
View quick video clips rather than thumbnails.
Show the first few seconds of every video.
Much much better than those tiny blurry first frames.
Start and stop anywhere in a video clip. (no editing required ever)
Random video with random start point, in slow motion and freeze frame.

Music files
-----------
Random mini tunes with or without search keys (uses metadata from the mp3's).
Hit enter for the complete song to play.
Catalogue and play your music within minutes of the download.

Pictures / Screen Captures
--------------------------
High speed display. See those burst of still pictures
that digital cameras do, as they were shot.
Flash through 700+ oldie black and white pictures in 35 seconds
Captioned or not.
I can randomly or sequentially view pictures with my 2 sisters
and their 4 kids. There are 10 such in the family album of 5000+ pics
Random was quickly added when people got tired of seeing the same old
lady at the beginning. Random is a KEY option.

Computer Ownership 99%
----------------------
By using just this 1 program as your interface.
You WILL own your computer and data, it won't own you.
99%+ of the time on the computer will be YOUR time.
The other 1% is when you do your backups. 1 folder dragged to a CD.

Data security 99%
-----------------
Only the most recent data will be at risk.
Backup CDs can be taken to any PC in a minute.
(Video files can be backed up to DVD as the disk gets full)

Handy Notepad
-------------
This search is also a notepad application. If you search, you need to store text.
Add notes to a text file with or without date and time stamp.
Cut and paste all kinds of text from the net.
(job site info, forum text, website homepage data, copied and pasted to MY files)

It can do search and replace, to make major changes to large text files.
Do search and replace right before you do encription, to really mess things up.
Encription is done as a search and replace.

**Desktop search should make your data portable.
Auto-Runs from DVD or CD. On any PC. (Backups come ALIVE)
Runs as a background job. (create your own skins)
Navagable, by picking one of the displayed options.
Great for training videos on DVD.

Works as a screen saver, scrolling text, pics, video, music.
(and combinations of all the above)
Random video, random pictures, random music and random text.

Run multiple versions of this program with different settings / defaults
(simply change the program name and put it in it's own folder)

No indexing required. (Indexing is a major limiting factor for most search engines)
Indexing makes it harder to run as a background job.
We arn't searching the entire internet! Just 1 computer.

Digital video can change everything.
EG. for legacy system backups.
"Video in" a high speed screen display of all the important customer information.
Start and stop anywhere in a video to see the desired data
do this type of video playback in super slow motion.
(hitting enter freezes/restarts the displayed video)
Simple and cheap, DVD's are 25 Cents per.

I use very few file formats: bmp, txt, jpg, mpg, mp3.
Less is best here, 5 or fewer is real good.

It's guaranteed; data won't be portable, if you keep it
in the format of a restrictive application.
see what is even said about "WORD" format at:
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html
The same applies for your emails, spreadsheets, presentations etc
(make a video of the above as a backup) very accessible and portable.
Do screen captures of important reports or step-by-step procedures.
I capture interesting web sites saved as a JPG
Then copy the text from the homepage and append that to a text file called sites.txt.
This info will be around a lot longer than some of the sites.
I have most of my emails since 1996 as large text files.

With search you don't need no database, no SQL.

This desktop search does all the above and MORE.
Can any desktop search match this? Probably NOT.

Searching since the mid 80's with the Vax/VMS search.
Developing this search since 1999 using Visual Basic 5.0

Happy Searching.

Go to topshareware and grab your FREE copy today.

http://www.topshareware.com/Spectate...load-42932.htm

One note: I always put the program exe in it's own folder.

See demos at:
http://www.dropshots.com/jusjus

Home site:
http://www.telusplanet.net/public/stonedan

[GooglePlexity]

Originally Posted by andrew247

Is the google desktop search worth using...is it better than the built in Microsoft one?

Is it better than Windows' built-in search? Definitely. Is it the best Desktop Search App? Probably Not. Is it worth using? Yes, because of the sidebar.

[Anonymous]

It's early days for me with GDS and, at this time, I think Copernic is a better desktop search tool.

One big bonus of GDS is being able to integrate GDS into my Windows system so it is my only search tool, otherwise it is just another app.

This integrated GDS into Windows - so when you hit Programs > Search the GDS window pops up.
http://www.bytegems.com/google-desktop-search.shtml

This page got me started with all the GDS stuff I needed.
http://users.tns.net/~skingery/firefox/GDS_Tips.html

[amitpatel_3001]

Well i would say its not worth using it,
cos it indexes the P.C. continiously.
and is the Most Horrible Resourses eater i have ever seen.

[RESteve]

What about privacy? You guys concerned about it indexing tax returns or personal info?

[Albatross]

GDS now has an encryption feature for the index file

[Kerrith]

I love it. I've configued it so that it doesn't index my D drive.

I've used lots of others and have File Locator Pro installed which I used for difficult searches or for files on my D drive and still prefer Google DeskTop.

Kerry