21. Hi Michael: I wrestled with whether to include Lookout on the list but ultimately decided not to as it is primarily an Outlook tool and is not being actively developed now that Microsoft owns it.

Thanks for mentioning it though - it has always been my favorite Outlook-focused search tool.

Posted at 6:20AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Marc Orchant

22. Another vote for Other/Lookout here. I somehow never seem to need to search for local files outside of my Outlook folders, so it does the job. I guess I should look at some of the others since Microsoft is probably going to abandon it...

Posted at 6:20AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Michael Moncur

23. Currently using Lookout, but will be investigating the MS Search tool among others.

Posted at 6:20AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Greg

24. Another vote for Lookout, here. I'm holding my breath to see what Microsoft ultimately ends up doing with this one.

Posted at 6:20AM on Dec 19th 2005 by StevenC

25. Another vote for Lookout, here. I'm holding my breath to see what Microsoft ultimately ends up doing with this one.

Posted at 6:20AM on Dec 19th 2005 by StevenC

26. Survey didn't pop up in IE or Firefox. But I have been quite happy with LookOut for both searching my Outlook as well as MyDocuments.

Posted at 6:20AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Jack Vinson

27. Agree--have tried and continue to play with Lookout, but without a doubt X1 is absolutely great!

Posted at 6:20AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Conrad Bessemer

28. Jack: The survey requires JavaScript be turned on. Do you, by chance, have it disabled in your browsers?

Posted at 6:20AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Marc Orchant

29. Agreed. Lookout is great and I use it everyday, but I also use Copernic and find things I wasn't even looking for!

Posted at 6:20AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Chuck

30. X1 in its version 5.0 avatar has just a great interface but given its price tag, I prefer Copernic.

http://labnol.blogspot.com

Posted at 6:20AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Amit Agarwal

31. Interesting results, Marc. I've just reverted back to Copernic Desktop Search after trying out the MSN suite for the past couple of weeks. Just uninstalled that.

I'd tried X1 before. Excellent product. But you've got to shell out $$ for it. With very good alternatives that are free, why pay? I don't see a truly *compelling* reason to pay.

Posted at 6:20AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Neville Hobson

32. Copernic's tool has come so far in such a short time that it has made itself indispensable for me. I also love the fact that it is *not* an Outlook COM add-in. Following your advice I installed Bells and Whistles, and found that although I had thought that I had uninstalled Lookout, in fact the COM add-in was still being loaded. After disabling it using the Outlook Add-In Utility that ships with Bells and Whistles, I find that my installation of Outlook is very noticeably faster when connecting from home over a remote connection. I'm not sure why Lookout would have been causing this problem only when connecting remotely (and I can't honestly remember which version of Lookout I had most recently installed), but I'm sure glad to have been able to remove it! Thanks, Marc.

Posted at 6:20AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Jason

33. I'm putting in a plug of ISYS:desktop. It's not intended for consumer desktop search, but rather exclusively for enterprise use. Gartner has suggested that for the short term, enterprises should avoid Google and Microsoft and go with a traditional provider. ISYS is one of them. First introduced in 1989 for DOS, ISYS:desktop is for the power user (the price tag is indicative of this), but it offers the level of security and sophistication that professionals in legal, government, law enforcement and other markets require.

Posted at 6:20AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Dave Haucke

34. I definitely like the Copernic product. Fast, simple and accurate. I love the Google UI for web search, but found it a bit restrictive on the desktop.

Posted at 6:20AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Des Paroz

35. I have used MSN Desktop Search, which in my option has done very well. The only thing I have a problem with is it is still in beta. Can't wait for it to be released

Posted at 6:20AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Joe

36. I have been using Copernic Desktop Search for 4-5 weeks now. It became totally indespensible within days of its first use. I now find EVERYTHING on my hard drive with it. Conceptually you could put every file, email, document, contact in a single folder and Copernic would find anything within 3 seconds. It is beautiful to look at and use. Very ergonomically designed. And FAST.

Google makes the mistake of assuming all the features and mentality for finding something on the Web will work with a desktop search. Not so. They are different animals.

Copernic is the best, and it is free.

Posted at 6:20AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Wes

37. I've just put some more detailed comments over on Neville Hobson's weblog. Copernic seems easiest to install and run, and has relatively little performance impact on a small machine. Yahoo Search is good, but takes too long to start up on small machines, and the interface needs tweaking. I liked Blinkx for a while - until I tried to make it work in more than one user account, and then it went into sulks and used days of machine time without actually doing anything useful. For the time being I'd rate Copernic as the best.

Posted at 6:20AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Dave

38. I agree, Copernic is great. I'm seriously considering upgrading to the pay version, provided they include features such as font conversion and "next search result" in the preview pane.

Posted at 6:20AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Ken