Microsoft Releases New Version of Desktop Search

April 24, 2008

Microsoft has available a “preview” version of its desktop search system for Windows XP and Vista at the company’s download center. (These links can go dead without warning, so get your copy now.)

In addition to bug fixes, the “preview”, according to Microsoft’s Web site:

… lets you perform an instant search of your computer. WS4 helps you find and preview documents, e-mail messages, music files, photos, and other items on the computer.

InfoWorld’s story about WS4 reports that performance has been improved.

Microsoft’s activity in search and retrieval has been increasing. The company is in the process of acquiring Fast Search & Transfer and Yahoo. Fast Search does not offer a desktop version of its system, but the company does have a robust Internet indexing capability now used by Yahoo.

Yahoo does not have a single search technology. The company uses technology from such vendors as InQuira, Fast Search & Transfer, plus the search systems that are used for the Flickr service. Yahoo acquired Stata Labs for its email search capability.

With a wealth of search technologies in its future, Microsoft will have many ways to solve its customers information access problems.

Stephen Arnold, April 24, 2008

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under News, Search

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.