MSN Launches Desktop Search Beta

Microsoft has released a beta of MSN Toolbar Suite, which includes the company's long-awaited Desktop Search. According to Microsoft, the search functionality within the toolbar suite will help users search through documents, media files or e-mail messages on their PC.

The suite includes three toolbars, one for Microsoft Outlook, a toolbar for Windows and Internet Explorer, and the MSN Deskbar for the Windows taskbar. Deskbar includes the MSN Desktop Search, which indexes files on a computer during periods of inactivity.

With the recent announcement that Yahoo! would be joining the desktop search fray and last month's release of Google Desktop Search Beta, the pressure was on Microsoft to see how the company would respond. However, Microsoft was not going to rush a product to market, Yusuf Mehdi, corporate vice president for MSN Information Services, told reporters. MSN was intent on making sure that its contribution would set it apart from competing services.

To do that, the company has integrated the search functionality for the Toolbar Suite within current popular Microsoft programs, rather than utilize a Web interface like Google's Desktop Search. "By delivering fast, precise answers with familiar technology, Microsoft is taking desktop information discovery to a new level," Mehdi said. If need be, however, switching between Web and desktop searching is "just a click" away, according to Microsoft.

Despite Redmond's jubilation with MSN Toolbar Suite, Jupiter Research senior analyst Joe Wilcox questioned whether the beta release met expectations.

"The new MSN desktop search utility feels like Microsoft cobbled together three disparate technologies, sort of a Swiss Army Knife, that don't function as smoothly as they could - or should," Wilcox said.

"I found that the three motifs really don't work well together. Microsoft has created too many unnecessary entry points to searching the desktop - and without fixing the search capabilities already existent in Windows XP and Outlook. My question: Why tack on something else, add more overhead to the system, when fixing the underlying structure would make more sense?"

MSN Toolbar Suite Beta can be downloaded via FileForum.