I have been following the desktop search tool market for quite sometime now and would like to comment on this article.
Robert is right in pointing out that the desktop search market is hot. PC hard drive space has increased a thousand-fold. Google has become a common-place verb for searching, and with PCs always connected via broadband or DSL we simply have more to search for.
The rest of the article is however embedded with not-so-correct information. It seems the author has little or no knowledge about the desktop search companies and their tools. To Read or Not to Read this article ? That is the Query.
As of this writing, Google's desktop search tool is a "beta" edition, and is still being fine-tuned.
The article was posted on May 09, 2005 and GDS was completely out of Beta on ..... - Yes there are security concerns with GDS but it is definitely not in Beta.
If you use a free desktop search appliance on your work PC, you may receive a deaf ear from the software (or your IT department's) help desk if things go wrong
Forums - That's the place to go when you have a problem. There are people (or geeks) all around the world to answer your queries as soon as you post it on a forum. And they don't charge you for the help. And vendors offering free tools do offer support - I know of atleast two companies Copernic or Filehand that respond to your email.
Besides Google, ISYS is the only vendor I know that provides both desktop and enterprise search tools.
Robert, you need to update yourself - X1, dtSearch, Copernic - all of them offer enterprise search tools.
free desktop search tools have most enterprise search vendors on the defensive.
It may be true or may be not. There are two kind of markets - one for the standalone PC user and the other for Corporate or Enterprise users where the actual money is. True because there has been lot of talk on how desktop search companies plan to make money if they continue to offer software for free. Infact some Windows users argue that Desktop Search Programs shouldn't exist as file indexing is already built-in and with Longhorn, most of the desktop search companies will have to close shops. Untrue because big corporates remain worried of security and privacy issues and rely only on enterprise versions. And yes, there are even home consumers willing to pay for desktop search tools. X1 charges around $75 for it's desktop search tool even though a similar version, released by Yahoo!, is available for free.
Your comments are welcome.
