Vista desktop search alternatives: Google and Yahoo tested
With the apparent lack of decent desktop searching abilities built into Vista, there are others out there that may actually serve you better.
However, it would seem that third party development is going about as well as the Desktop Search built into Vista. That is to say, some options exist but they may not work at all.
We tested both Google’s and Yahoo!’s desktop search variants.
Despite offering no official support for Vista, Google Desktop, actually seems to work right off the bat, with indexing and search functioning like a pair of lucky charms.
Give it a whirl, but there probably is a reason for the lack of support. We twice contacted Google’s media spokesperson regarding this, but never received a single response.
Yahoo!’s attempt, on the other hand, didn’t impress us at all. In fact, it killed itself prior to the actual setup. We only managed to initiate an error message before it flat-lined.
We contacted Yahoo! to ask about this nasty finding. Yahoo!’s PR people did respond, unlike Google’s, but our questions remain unanswered.
Stephen Rodi from Yahoo!’s Australian headquarters said he was unable to comment on the status of Yahoo! Desktop Search because it isn’t a supported package in Australia. In fact, you basically shouldn’t use it if you’re an Australian, saying “From the Australian perspective, we don’t have that product here.”Well, how about that? Just in case he wasn’t being clear, Rodi added “We don’t do desktop search, here, in Australia.”
Naturally we requested the reasoning behind this, however, we haven’t heard back from Rodi.
We await an informative response from both Google and Yahoo.
Another option, of course, is to quit rummaging around your own personal wasteland like the feral pig you are and learn my personal favourite form of pedantism: organised chaos.
Like some vague form of encryption, it’s essentially the same degree of tragic mess, however, you and only you can find things.
Oink, basically.
