The fact that Microsoft, Yahoo! and Google are all looking to grow (or retain) their share of the search market and to extend this to the desktop is no secret. Unfortunately for Microsoft the the next Windows release (codenamed Longhorn) is constantly being delayed and as one of its primary aims is to improve the search capabilities available natively within the operating system, this gives Google and others an opportunity to take a hold on the desktop (although Google will need to be smart in order to maintain it’s lead in the Internet search engine market – whether the launch of the rumoured Mozilla-based Google browser will help with this is yet to be seen).
Back in July 2004, Microsoft purchased an ISV called Lookout Software. Lookout is an add-on to Microsoft Outlook that allows users to bypass the search tools provided by Microsoft and sift through e-mail, contacts and other information with keywords. The latest version of Lookout is now available from the Microsoft website and my first impressions are that it is very good, and very fast (is it only me that thinks the Lookout branding looks a bit like Google’s?).
On a related note, Copernic, another successful player in the search market, released their Desktop Search product this month – again, my first impressions using this are good.
Links
Lookout and Microsoft questions and answers
Outlook is a platform
Rumours surround Google browser
Google browser may be reality
A couple of additional contenders for the desktop search market are Blinkx and the new Google Desktop Search tool.
Another interesting search-related development is Adobe and Yahoo!’s link-up to integrate Adobe PDF online into the Yahoo! Internet Explorer Toolbar. As part of the arrangement, a future version of Adobe Reader (which is reported to have 500 million users worldwide) will include Yahoo! as the default search engine.
A very relibale and fast search tool is Lookeen
http://www.lookeen.net
Lookout doesn´t work with Outlook 07 and windows vista!
I find that Lookeen is the best alternative to Lookout, it is fast, reliable and accurate as Lookout, even better, also because it is devloped!
I don’t know about Lookeen but this blog post is 5 years old… Xobni covers the Outlook search pretty well – and for that matter any modern OS has a search capability built in. I no longer see any requirement for something like Lookout.
Hey, i´m using Lookeen with my Outlook 2007 and I´m very happy with it!