With the MSN Desktop Search Toolbar now out of beta (take tour of the features), I wanted to try it on the place that I need the most productivity (and that is most Microsoft-centric): my M1400 Tablet PC. Firstly, the download on my blazing cable connection was very, very slow, so Microsoft’s servers must have been getting pounded.

Addins allow searching additional file types. It comes with yet another Pop-up blocker, automatic form-fill and access to MSN services.

One thing I didn’t like, which I mentioned before (Dec 14, 2004) with MSN desktop search beta, was that they default check to change my default search engine and home page. I really, really wish vendors wouldn’t do that. Just because I’m installing your product doesn’t mean you should assume the importance of being my default search engine and home page. Obviously, my complaints, and those who agree with this line of thinking, went totally ignored. Also, I noticed that during the installation you could actually skip the customization and not even see that these options were still checked. For the people who do that without realizing they are having the defaults changed? Doh!

On the positive side of defaults note from the screenshot above that only email and My Documents folder are indexed by default. Users have to choose to index more than that. This was a smart move.

So what about actually using the MSN Desktop Search? I noticed with it in the toolbar that it shrinks the space in Portrait mode to almost unacceptable two application spaces. That doesn’t work, so I undocked it by clicking and dragging out into the desktop. Now it’s more like a Mac Dashboard Widget and more space-friendly. I tried a few demo test searches and the results were all returned very fast. A huge improvement over the older traditional dog search (somebody must finally have put old yeller out of his misery).

If you click in the text area of the deskbar a window pops up with the various Desktop shortcuts likes: ?help, ?syntax, !quote (stock quotes), !movies (search for movies with Fandango tie-in), !travel (expedia reservations), !word (open a new Word document), !calc (loads up calculator) and !outlook (loads Outlook).

It’s too bad I can’t ink right inside the deskbar, maybe some enterprising Tablet PC developer will add that functionality someday. Yes, you can work with it using the Tablet Input Panel (TIP) but despite using that for nearly six months, I still find that kind of awkward. I want to write on the screen or anywhere and have it fill in input boxes. Anybody know of a program that will do that? I tried Orange Guava, but that’s not quite what I’m talking about. Just write anywhere on the screen (I write big) and have it input into the Deskbar. Now that would be handy. Anybody?

Users can also create custom Deskbar shortcuts. Very handy!

In summary, MSN Desktop Search seems more tightly integrated than the Google desktop, though I read that others (PDF) like Chris Pirillo like Coppernic better. I’ll have to check out Coppernic more closely someday and see if it’s a better fit for the Tablet. In the meantime it will stay installed on my Tablet — at least until I find something better or if it goes south like it did for Warner who had some serious conflicts with his M200 and the Desktop Search. Grade: B.

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