"A Desktop Search Primer" was the title of my Oklahoma Bar Journal story this month. I generally outlined what desktop search is and noted several of the leading products. An important point was that you should make sure the product indexes the files you need to search. For example, some products do not index WordPerfect files. Google is so pervasive that many plug-ins have been developed by third parties to enhance its capabilities, including Larry's WordPerfect Indexer for Google. Go check out the Google plug-ins page. While Google disclaims responsibility for these third party plug-ins, I have the feeling they would remove those where they had received many trouble reports. Tweak GDS, Google Desktop Extreme and gdTunes all look interesting. But, I'm not using Google Desktop Search for now. At this point I prefer the non-browser-dependent alternatives, not affiliated with the mega portals.
Killer Desktop Search for Free by John Tredennick is in this month's Law Practice Today. Now I did find some humor here. I've had the pleasure of being entertained in John and Page's beautiful home, although I didn't make it over to tour the stables. John writes that he knew of X-1 Desktop Search being available for $75 but "never could bring myself to buy it. Instead, I remained in desktop search hell." I'm sure I wasn't the only one reading that who thought that John could have afforded it. Now John has settled on Microsoft Desktop Search as his favorite choice at his favorite price - Free.
Tom Mighell prefers Copernic Desktop Search as his tool of choice. If I hadn't already started with X-1, I would probably using that one as it is free and works with Internet Explorer or FireFox. That's my concern about the Microsoft product. I don't particularly want a product tied to IE when so many people are switching over to Firefox as their browser of choice.
If you read these posts because you value my opinions, then let me give you a strong opinion now. It is time for you to install one of these products now! This week. You save too much time with these products on a regular basis not to have them. Don't let the fact that there are a number of good choices stall you for fear of not getting the very best one. They are slightly different, but they are all better than what comes standard with Windows. Read all the linked articles here for all the information you need. Then download and try one.
Let me give you one more example. Three of us were on a conference call the other day and we needed to call a third party. None of us had her in our Contacts. Before anyone could act, I opened X-1 and typed her first name, Dee, into e-mail search. I looked at the saved e-mails from her and opened one that didn't have RE: or FWD: in the subject line. Her phone number was in the signature block. This took three or four seconds. Of course, then I used Anagram to save all of her information into my Contacts in another three or four seconds, but that's another story.
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