I promised you more on Google Desktop, and by jove more you shall have. Macworld’s posted a first look at the app by yours truly, in which we’ll discover together the good, the bad, and the buggy about Google’s latest piece of Mac software. I present to you this excerpt on a nifty feature:
One feature that ought to have Spotlight users (particularly Spotlight detractors) jumping for joy is the ability to use the same query operators that Google.com uses. For example, enclosing a string in quotes will only search for instances of that complete phrase; you can also require or exclude terms with + and -, respectively. (It’s worth noting that Apple plans to add support for boolean logic—using AND, OR, and NOT—in search requests in revamped version of Spotlight to be included in the forthcoming OS X 10.5 update.)Though Google’s pitching Desktop as a complement to Spotlight, it’s hard to see how it’s not just in straight competition. Anybody out there thinking of kicking Spotlight to the curb in favor of the big G? Let us know.
Not after reading John Gruber's piece (http://daringfireball.net/2007/04/google_desktop_installer) on what gets installed by Google. Sorry, my search needs aren't so great that I'm going to litter my system with unknown files in suspect places just to be able to find that one file a hair more easily (and even that's debatable in my case). I'll stick with Spotlight.
Does it have to be a competitor? Why not just a complement? Spotlight's great sometimes when Quicksilver doesn't do the trick. I have hopes that Google Desktop will fill in the remaining holes in my searching needs.
I'm planning on setting Spotlight to cntrl-space, Quicksilver to cmd-space, and Google Desktop to option-space. That way, all of my searching bases are covered.
I never thought I'd see the day when Dan would quote himself....