Desktop Power with Yahoo Desktop Search

Yahoo has released a new beta version of Yahoo Desktop Search, which is able to index over 300 types of files. The Yahoo Desktop Search availablehere has a basic version which primarily indexes e-mails and set of extensions for the rest of the file types.

After installing both packs, Yahoo Desktop Search will start indexing the content found on the hard disk, an operation whose duration depends on the type of content found on the hard drive. Unlike its rivals: MSN and Google whose Desktop Search programs are integrated into the Internet Explorer browser, Yahoo Desktop Search has its own interface.

Yahoo is able to selectively search in e-mails, attachments, IM messages, office documents, images, audio files or in all of them at a time, the user being only required to select the desired tab. The results of the search will be displayed in the right-side window of the application, the left one being solely for preview.

Another impressive feature of the Yahoo Desktop Search is the Options menu, clearly superior to the ones found in the Google and MSN applications. From this menu, users will also be able to set the way in which Yahoo Desktop Search indexes Mozilla's e-mail clients, this being the first that offers this option.

Near the Search field, the application has the following buttons: Refine, (whose activation will allow the user to filter the searches by date, format, dimension and folder), Clear and Search Web (clicking the latter will result in the opening of the Internet browser).

By activating the Search Multi-Line option, the user gets even more searching options, such as narrowing the e-mail searches by specifying the sender. If you are a fan of Yahoo Messenger, with Yahoo Desktop Search, you will be able to search in your conversations.

Once the hard disk is indexed, the searches will require minimum time and the returned results can be sorted according to several criteria.

The idea to give the application its own interface, the possibility to search in IM messages and the advanced configure and sorting options make Yahoo Desktop Search a much more interesting tool than its rivals. We are anxious to see the final version, the beta one being sometimes unstable.

Yahoo Desktop Search is certified by Softpedia as being 100% Clean.