I find highly coincidental that on Friday Microsoft lets out that WinFS isn't coming for a loooong time and on Monday releases a MSN desktop search utility packing some of the capabilities promised in the new file system. Maybe I've been watching high-tech companies too long and so make relationships where they don't exist. Or--maybe not.
The big WinFS promise was about improved search capabilities, particularly finding digital content and creating more meaningful relationship between disparate bits of data, such as vacation e-mail travel receipts and digital images taken on the trip. The MSN desktop utility (a.k.a. Toolbar Suite) seeks to offer some of the same capabilities, but way before Microsoft could deliver WinFS--even under the original release schedule. So, I'm affectionately referring to the MSN desktop search utility as MSNFS.
There are several key advantages to the approach:
One: Microsoft can deliver more robust search capabilities now, when they matter; when AOL, Google and Yahoo! are getting out desktop search utilities and Apple prepares Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" with metadata search capabilities. End of 2006 or 2007 is too long to wait.
Two: A new file system means trouble, particularly one that is so-called revolutionary. That kind of change would be as disruptive as beneficial. By relying on MSN search capabilities, Microsoft can still push its vision of seamless desktop, Internet and network search while helping people better utilize their growing stashes of digital content, particularly images. All this would be possible without releasing a disruptive new file system.
Three: A new file system is something everyone would have to take. Many businesses would have good reason not to, given potential management and software/hardware acquisition costs associated with switching to WinFS. But they can choose to download the MSN desktop utility--or not. Better would be choice that let business and other users install only portions of the software. Some business users might only need Outlook search. So Microsoft, why not make only that portion available to them?
This afternoon, I let the MSN desktop search utility index my hard drive in a process that took over two-and-a-half hours. The laptop's drive is only 40GB and not even half full. Except, the utility didn't index my hard drive. A closer look showed the software's default setting is e-mail and the My Documents folder. My Documents folder contains a mere 7.26GB of data (14GB of music is stored on an attached drive) and my Outlook data file is about 800MB. So the indexer, working at full clip, knocked off 53MB/minute, or thereabouts. And the default setting ignores e-mail attachments. Assuming a similar pace, I figure the indexer could catalog all my data in about one workday--and that's not figuring in the e-mail attachments. That's a pretty inefficient process. I waited on testing the Google desktop search utility, so I can't offer framework for comparison.
Improving the indexer should be a top Microsoft priority, now that WinFS has joined Cairo in the vaporware version of Wonderland and all the eggs are in the MSN search basket. Microsoft did right by trying to use some of the existing Windows XP/2000 search architecture. Challenge now is to make it work better. And, of course, dispense with the triad search motif.
I'd also like to see a more realistic disclosure of the MSN search utilities' features. Outlook search is excellent, but does derive greatly from LookOut technology acquired by Microsoft. At first excited by other search capabilities touted during a Microsoft conference call today, I dramatically calmed after discovering that Windows XP's built-in search function found nearly all the same files. The process just took lots longer than using the MSN search utility. Windows XP search found the same Green Day songs as the desktop search utility, which says something about the digital content search capabilities already available in the operating system. So, Microsoft, why not just fix that utility so that it works faster?
By the way, as with the previous 搉on-public?beta, I find the MSN search utility slows down my computer抯 performance and Outlook operations. Soon as my second round of testing is complete, I will again remove the software. For folks planning to use the software full time, Jonathan Hardwick has some tips for you; he's been testing Microsoft search software for sometime, apparently.
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