A few days ago I wrote about BlinkX, a desktop contextual search tool. The article highlighted that as broadband becomes all pervasive and as our computers become mere nodes on a high-speed network, the concept of search is going to evolve from Google to something like BlinkX.
I think as more and more people network their home computers, devices and all sorts of other stuff, there is going to be a need for a special search tool which can ’Äúscan’Äù and ’Äúfind’Äù the stuff on the local networks. I am currently dying trying to find stuff on like a terabyte of data which sits in all sorts of devices on my home network. (from the archives actually)
The desktop-based search is becoming so hot that is fueling a lot of buyouts. This morning, Karelia Software, the makers of a wonderful Mac-desktop tool, Watson, was bought out by some undisclosed large company. Some are speculating that the buyer might be Sun Microsystems. Who knows it could be Google as well. Today, Apple threw its hat in the ring with Spotlight, a new desktop search feature in the upcoming Tiger version of its Operating System.
Spotlight can find email messages, calendars and contacts along with documents, movies, images ’Äî any kind of file ’Äî all at once. Spotlight results are displayed in easy-to-understand categories that help you browse, pick and click, Apple writes on its website. I would not be terribly surprised if Apple integrates Google search into Spotlight.
The comments of this post give you a historical context on the development of these desktop search tools.
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