Microsoft entered the desktop search market today with the beta release (here) of new tools from its MSN division. I'm no big fan of the new MSN desktop search utility and have communicated this to Microsoft. Additionally, I would consider today's beta--third in a row--to be another performance miss (see blogs on MSN Web searchand MSN Spacesblogging).
The new MSN desktop search utility feels like Microsoft cobbled together three disparate technologies, sort of a Swiss Army Knife, that don't function as smoothly as they could--or should. Technology one is the MSN Search toolbar, which now extends its capabilities to the desktop. Technology two is the search toolbar added to Outlook that suspiciously reminds of utility LookOut, which purchase Microsoft announced in July. Technology three is a search box added to the Windows taskbar that taps into Windows XP's indexer technology.
I found that the three motifs really don't work well together. Microsoft has created too many unnecessary entry points to searching the desktop--and without fixing the search capabilities already existent in Windows XP and Outlook. My question: Why tack on something else, add more overhead to the system, when fixing the underlying structure would make more sense? Do you build a facade on a rickety house or repair structural problems? The answer should be obvious, but apparently not to some folks at Microsoft. I'd like to see one motif that aggregated results from all windows. So far, Apple's Mac OS X has the best search motif I've seen yet in an operating system. Each Window has a place in the upper right-hand corner to type in a search query. The motif makes search available almost everywhere in the operating system, in a simple and straightforward way...
[Microsoft Monitor] 
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