In the past, finding data on PCs was a series of unrelated activities. Users need one or more software tools to find files that contain a specific key word on the hard disk. Searching for data outside of a local hard drive means logging into a library or university computer system and entering the old Boolean search term in the server's search window.
This has changed as Web sites become more user-friendly. Websites like Yahoo, Google and MSN provide search engines that allow users to find information stored anywhere on the web. At the same time, pc-based data search software has been developing along the same track, using increasingly sophisticated technologies to find data on computer hard disks. In most cases, the computerized search process still requires users to run independent computer-based and web-based applications to find data, which, of course, depends on whether the data is stored on the computer or on the Internet.
The latest development of the search tool is the browser-based toolbar. The use of the main web-based search engine is becoming more convenient by providing free toolbar plug-ins that can run on a variety of popular browsers. In addition to these toolbars, Terralycos's recently released HotBot free desktop bar marks the birth of a new market: Desktop Search. Google began entering the market at the end of last year.
Application software now enables users to integrate traditional desktop search and web search, which makes it easier to use a software to search the Internet, computer-based e-mail, and user documentation stored on hard disks.
One of the challenges for search engine providers is the ability to drive advertising and business growth. Charging users with a lot of risk. ' Desktop Search offers little value-added services and figuring out how to drive growth is still a problem for search engine providers, ' says Leslie InfoSpace, vice president of product management at the company's Search and catalog division.
Persuading computer users to use these new, integrated search tools is another challenge for search service providers. Integrated search tools do not immediately get a large number of customers. ' People's habits are not easy to change, ' says Leslie. One strategy to attract users to pay-for-search services, she says, is to reduce prices to almost zero and then incrementally add fee-based services after users have accepted a fee search.
Some analysts believe that, in the end, integrated search engines will become the core function of the operating system. But Leslie said she did not think Microsoft would immediately enter the market.
Several search portals are not just providing toolbar plug-ins, they are also being reinforced by links directly to dictionaries, news sources, and other search services. For example, the most popular sidebar adds a search bar under the browser's URL bar, and most plugins provide pop-up window filters that make users more convenient. Some toolbars also provide more advanced functionality if the user accepts some additional criteria. The two most popular tool strips come from Google and Yahoo.
The Free Terralycoshotbot toolbar, released in March, gives new features to the search. It sets the key words on the Internet search and documents, e-mail search in one, users can customize the desktop and Web search settings. Hotbotdesktop can create an index that allows users to search for native files, Outlook and outlookexpress e-mail, browser history, and so on, and integrates a pop-up window filter.
Dr David, a professor at Yale University, believes that computer users need to better find and use their computers this year, a demand that has led to the emergence of Desktop Search tool scopewarevision. It uses key words to find information, and search results are represented as index cards in chronological order. It's not a search engine, David says, but an all-encompassing comprehensive tool. Scopewarevision can't search the Internet.
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