The Variety of Desktop Search Solutions

Questions to ask Before you Choose

• What types of files do you want to search? Here you’ll want to make sure that your search solution fits the file types you often use.
• Where are those files located? If your files are located in email folders or on a server, you’ll want a solution that can index those.
• How fast do you want your files to be indexed and searched? Some desktop search solutions can get pretty heavy on your resources, so make sure that you are tailoring it for your needs. Important: The index that you build today will expand very quickly once you get used to working with an indexed desktop search solution, so you’ll want to look for a little more resource space than you need now.
• Where do you want to search? There are many solutions out there, so test and re-test. If you’re looking for a desktop search solution that indexes the cloud as well (such as Dropbox), then it might be a different solution than the one that is the best for your Outlook searches.

What I Look for in a Desktop Search Solution

I look for speed and that it returns good results. Remember: not all tools will find the results that you’re looking for. (Think Bing and Google). Although they are searching mass amounts of data, they use different criteria when “indexing” their data. A desktop search solution should find what you want, when you need it. I don’t care if I only remember that the first paragraph in a PDF document had the words “Virtual Desktop” in it, I want to be able to find it with a simple search.

Finally what I want is a “hands off” desktop search. That means that once I set up the initial indexing parameters, it will continue to do its thing in the background without me doing anything. I know exactly when my antivirus software kicks in, because everything else gets sluggish. I hate that! If my desktop search index is running and I don’t notice anything different, that is the perfect product for me.

If these are the sort of features you are looking for, I would recommend that you download Lookeen for a free 14 day trial and let us know what you think!