Jason Clarke

I was so excited when Yahoo released their desktop search application based on X1’s technology. X1 has the best desktop search offering available, but they charge too much for it, in my opinion. I’ve been using Yahoo’s version of X1’s product for a while now (about 2 months), and although I love the interface, it has what is for me a fatal flaw. Occasionally when I attempt to search for something, the entire index for my email is completely missing.

Really it’s just a bug of some kind, and something that I would be willing to investigate and patch up. However, Yahoo’s support for their desktop search offering is pathetic. Granted, it’s a free offering, but there’s not even a way to see if a newer build is available. The discussion forum for it is probably the worst I’ve ever seen for any product; there’s no way to search the forum’s messages for answers to your issues. From Yahoo, that’s just atrocious.

Given that Yahoo obviously rushed into the desktop search realm with this release, but appears not to be serious about supporting it, I’ve decided to switch back to Copernic’s Desktop Search offering which I first wrote about here. The latest build is 1.5 which is still in beta, but so far it looks like a winner to me. I really like the control Copernic gives the user over how aggressive the engine should be about indexing, and what rules it should follow to ensure it stays out of your way when you’re actively using the computer.

Sorry Yahoo. Better luck next time. Marc invited me to try Yahoo 360; hopefully I’ll have something better to say there.