desktop search: copernic vs. google

i installed copernic on my computer. it turned out to be better than google. google and yahoo both failed to find one text file that i have although i installed google all text search plugin. i don't know why. google can find other files of that type but not the ones in a specific directory. on the other hand, copernic worked flawlessly. it found the file as soon as i added the file type to additional text file list. also the preview with highlight feature is very useful.

desktop search: google vs. yahoo

i recently tried two desktop search products, google and yahoo. google just launched 1.0 of its desktop search while yahoo bought X1 and branded it as its own desktop search. my pick is google at the end although i prefer to give other product a try because i don't like google to monopoly the search market. Here is my opinion:

yahoo desktop search

pros:

• supports a lot of file formats


• preview many file formats

cons:

• resources intensive - depending on your configuration, it may can your hard disk once in 30 minutes. althought, the process has a low priority, i still don't like it.


• does not support index on the fly - this is why it needs to scan your harddisk more often.


• slow when large file gets previewed - if you happen to click on a large file, it gets very slow. i don't like to see a program that is not responding.


• user interface too complicated - although it has many advanced features, i think the ui is too complicated. it is intended for advanced users. i like simple and easy to use. i think that's the key to success.

google desktop search

pros:

• simple user interface - do you know how to use google? if yes, then you can use desktop search.


• resources fridenly - it runs seeminglessly in the background. i never notice its existence.


• smart indexing on viewing, creating and modifying - if you view, create or modify a file, it gets indexed immediately. no need to wait until the next indexing job run which yahoo does.


• improved security - google improved some of the security issues over the beta version. now you can choose to not index password protected office documents. it also allows you to remove items stored in the cache.


• cache versions - google can cache older versions


• open API to allow supports for more file types

cons:

• google wants to monopoly the search market.


• less privacy - you have to be careful to use this tool. it even finds things you don't want others to see. study how to use the security features before it indexes your harddisk.

I also want to try another product copernic to see how well it compares with google.

Yahoo Search

just happen to find that Yahoo did indexed my blog. now microsoft and yahoo are all in google's search business. it's interesting to see who is going to win the game.
yahoo also launched a beta version of its personalized search mysearch. new features include saving, blocking, sharing of the links, search within saved sites and notes to links.
Meta search engine may worth a try: dogpile and vivisimo.

FreeFind Site Search

I switched to FreeFind for my site search since Google hasn't indexed my site. For now, at least I can search my blog to find old posts. Freefind is pretty good and easy to setup. Moreover, it indexes my site almost right away. I can also customize my search result page by uploading a custom template.