Microsoft has demonstrated a search engine that hunts on computer hard drives as well as the Web. Company vice president Yusuf Mehdie called the new SE the clearest sign to date that Microsoft means business entering the local hard drive search space and in challenging search kings Google.
"We will be able to search beyond the Web in a very fast fashion," Mehdie told a gathering of reporters and analysts at the company’s headquarters. "We have made a lot of progress." But that didn’t mean Microsoft was ready to announce a launch date or a timeframe for getting the new search engine to market.
The demonstration involved putting search terms into an MSN Toolbar prototype, running as an Internet Explorer add on, with search results like e-mail, attachments, pictures, and documents returned practically at once, with Web results from the same search terms shown on a separate window, according to reports from the gathering.
Microsoft’s moves toward a stronger search market position have included its recent acquisition of Lookout, a small program that lets Microsoft Outlook users bypass Microsoft search tools and hunt e-mail, contacts, and other information with keywords, with results returned almost at once.
The company didn’t say whether or how much Lookout technology factors into the new hard drive search program just yet. "We wanted to show you a local PC and e-mail searching that we build as a joint effort across the company," Mehdie told the headquarters gathering.
