The Search Within

Locating stuff on your desktop can now be done in a flash. It can be a bit spooky too.

A couple of weeks back, a colleague and I met up with MSN India country head, Jaspreet Bindra "� a most genial sardarji who can talk non-stop, mostly about MSN.

He spoke about a host of new things the Microsoft division was planning "� in and for India. And the Windows Live project, which I will write about at a later point. He also demonstrated the Windows Desktop Search, which went off beta in May.

A few months ago, a techie friend and I were once arguing about which is the best search engine. I said Google, while he pointed out engines like A9 were sharper and more focussed. I responded by saying he hated most software companies, particularly after they became large. But my friend is known to be a bit of a discoverer in the digital world. And so our discussion rambled on.

On a somewhat philosophical note, it struck me then we humans are always searching. We search for health, wealth, happiness, knowledge, lost civilisations and misplaced spectacles.

Our searches take us to distant lands. They also cause us to tear around the house. Particularly when you are late for work and your spectacles have taken wings.

And we trawl the world wide web. Often aimlessly if you ask me. But sometimes with purpose. My chat with Jaspreet reminded me of my argument with my techie friend.

I realised how an equally big challenge was the search within. And I don't necessarily mean the spiritual kind. Desktops and laptops are now extensions of our minds, they store all the useless information we want to know but are bored to remember.

Or files we are scared to delete. But then, locating them on the desktop or within the thousands of emails is sometimes a bigger challenge than establishing whether it rained in Tuvalu this morning.

You can do that in an instant, so its passé. The same does not apply to stuff on your computer. Its like the pair of spectacles which were on the couch last evening. Where the blazes are they now ?

Google, Yahoo and MSN have free, downloadable desktop search engines. All, particularly Google, have combined desktop search with a host of other pretty powerful functions like onscreen live news widgets (from sites you've visited !), scratch pads and even photo booths.

With any of these three programmes, you can search for files of all shapes, types, sizes and formats. Hidden in the most remote crevices of your hard drive. In places you never knew existed. I first discovered this to my utter shock two years ago when using a friend's desktop.

The Google desktop search he had just installed had begun instantly indexing mails I had temporarily accessed via a Windows web server. This was crazy. Google Desktop could turn up stuff you would want protected.

MSN and Google for instance use`word wheeling' technology which means the answers start appearing as you type. So key in `g' and all files with `g' or with the word `g' inside them begin to flash. Key in `o' to make`go' then the search narrows down. Both instal a box on your lower tool bar and distinguish between word files, power points, pdfs and other formats. MSN allows a preview of a file as well.

You can also find photographs, text within instant messages, contacts, communications. In short, there is nothing that the extension of your head that is your laptop can hide today.

The debate on who is better will depend on how much you use which function..like the news widget that Google has. Your computer could slow down a little, though all three say the indexing does affect performance. There are lots more features (like searching across computers) which are best discovered as you use them.

The hitch is that desktop search engines can work against you if you have nosey colleagues or friends. MSN, Google, for will happily index stuff you don't want someone to start sifting through.

Google says you can disable password protected content. Am not sure about MSN. Anyway, I've discovered a useful tool in the digital journey "� the ability to search your own computer. Now, I wish there was a similar way I could find my spectacles too.

(govindraj@business-standard.com )