DesktopSearch

Enfish

• Good: Lotus Notes and Outlook and email attachments in both.
• Bad:

X1 Lite

• Good:
• Bad:

Google

• Good: Desktop results added to web search. Cache contains deleted documents.
• Bad: Stops after 5000 distinct words in a document and 5000 files in a folder.
• Bad: Does not index Windows file metadata (except for media files).

FileHand

• Good: Indexes all Outlook data types
• Bad: No ZIP support.

MSN

• Good:
• Bad: Won't index Thunderbird

Blinkx

• Good:
• Bad:

|Tool                   |A|O|P|E|.|I|F|Z|D|K|B|T|H|X|N|M|.|L|R|W|3|J|C|.|U|Warnings|
|Enfish Pro $200        |Y|Y|Y|Y|_|.|.|.|.|.|.|Y|Y|N|Y|.|_|Y|Y|N|N|N|N|_|.|Must turn off auto-POP in Outlook|
|X1 $75                 |Y|Y|Y|Y|_|.|N|Y|.|Y|.|N|N|N|.|.|_|Y|Y|N|Y|Y|N|_|.| . |
|X1 Lite (Yahoo)        |Y|Y|Y|Y|_|.|N|Y|.|Y|N|N|N|N|.|.|_|N|Y|N|Y|Y|N|_|A-|Frequent 100% CPU use (idle priority)|
|Google                 |Y|Y|Y|Y|_|.|Y|N|.|.|.|.|Y|.|.|N|_|.|.|.|Y|Y|Y|_|.|Assuming use of plug-ins.|
|FileHand 2.1           |Y|Y|Y|Y|_|.|N|.|.|.|.|Y|.|.|.|.|_|Y|.|.|.|.|.|_|.|Searches Notes, may not search Tasks |
|Microsoft              |Y|Y|Y|Y|_|.|Y|N|Y|Y|.|Y|Y|H|.|Y|_|.|Y|N|Y|Y|N|_|B|It is slow and I often don't find what I want.|
|Rejects                |.|.|.|.|_|.|.|.|.|.|.|.|.|.|.|.|_|.|.|.|.|.|.|_|.| . |
|Copernic               |Y|Y|Y|Y|_|.|Y|N|N|Y|.|N|Y|Y|.|.|_|Y|Y|Y|Y|Y|N|_|B|.|
|blinkx                 |N|Y|Y|Y|_|.|Y|Y|N|Y|.|N|Y|.|.|.|_|.|.|.|Y|Y|.|_|A|Doesn't index file or directory names. 100K file limit. Tech support won't identify the 200 file types supported. |
|Namazu (Perl)          |.|.|Y|N|_|.|N|.|.|.|.|.|.|.|.|.|_|.|.|.|.|.|.|_|D|Uses CGI |
|Wilbur (Open Source)   |Y|.|Y|N|_|.|N|Y|.|N|.|N|N|N|.|.|_|Y|N|N|N|N|N|_|D| . |
|WinXP Indexing Svc     |Y|Y|Y|N|_|.|.|.|.|.|.|.|.|.|.|.|_|.|.|.|.|.|.|_|.| . |
|Ask Jeeves (beta 1)    |N|Y|N|Y|_|.|.|.|.|.|.|.|.|.|.|.|_|.|.|.|.|.|.|_|.| . |
|Lookout                |Y|Y|N|Y|_|.|N|.|.|.|.|Y|Y|Y|.|.|_|.|.|.|.|.|.|_|.|Orphan?            |
|(template)             |.|.|.|.|_|.|.|.|.|.|.|.|.|.|.|.|_|.|.|.|.|.|.|_|.| .                 |

• Tier-1 (Deal Breakers - Can't work-around. I would switch from a non-supporting tool to a supports-all tool in a heartbeat.)*
  • A = arbitrary files (text strings within)

  • O = Office files (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)

  • P = PDF
  • E = Email (Outlook) *and attachments*
• Tier-2 (Pretty Important - If a tool meets all Tier-1, I would switch to a tool supporting one or more of these.)*
  • M = Metadata for ALL file types (not just media); in particular the Keywords metadata.

  • I = Instiki (or \MoinMoin indexing)

  • F = on the fly indexing (hooks OS file write)
  • Z = ZIP contents (must identify which sub-file)
  • D = indexes Directory name
  • K = Keystroke-by-keystroke search results
  • B = Battery aware (don't full scan index when on battery power)
  • T = Outlook Tasks and Notes
  • H = HTML
  • X = XML (Y-Yes, understands XML; H-as HTML)
  • N = Lotus Notes
• Tier-3 (Somewhat Important - If a tool meets all Tier-2, I would switch to a tool supporting one or more of these.)*
  • L = LAN mapped drives
  • R = RTF
  • W = web history
  • 3 = MP3 w/ID3 info indexed
  • J = JPEG w/EXIF (or similar) info indexed
  • C = Combines web and desktop results
  • U = Subjective Usability

<hr>

Footnotes

• Can any of these index my Instiki? My MoinMoin?

• I had trouble w/Enfish bypassing Outlook rules, because Enfish opens MAPI but not Outlook. Could turning off auto-download of POP3 work-around?
• blinkx claims support for 200 file types. I queried them on 1/13/05 for the complete list. Maybe arbitrary file types is not a requirement?
• Copernic indexed 35,000 files on my PC.
• I give credit for being able to search a format even if additional adapters are required, or special setup is required. If I can get there without writing code, they get credit.
• I used to track the ability to relocate index files to another partition. However, with NTFS, it is possible to mount a partition on an empty directory, so ANY product can be relocated.
• Some registry editing is required to get MSN Desktop Search to add another file type.
• Copernic's initial index will need to run overnight configured with no back-off.

• "MSN":http://toolbar.msn.com

• "Google":http://desktop.google.com

• "Copernic":http://www.copernic.com

• "Lookout":http://www.lookoutsoft.com

• "Wilbur":http://wilbur.redtree.com

My Tinkerings

• MSN Desktop Search