This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Java Buzz by Janek Schwarz. Original Post: Filehand -- An Alternative to Google Desktop Search? Feed Title: The Wannabe Java Rockstar Feed URL: http://weblog.janek.org/Archive/Categories/javablogs.rss.xml Feed Description: The Wannabe Java Rockstar: Janek's weblog where all posts go to Eleven Latest Java Buzz Posts Latest Java Buzz Posts by Janek Schwarz Latest Posts From The Wannabe Java Rockstar

Considering the ballyhoo following Google's release of it's desktop search (GDS), I'd like to point to an alternative: Filehand. The new version 2.0 is free for non-commercial use.

Filehand sports a rich client interface, which I like. It is a pure desktop search engine lacking web integration. That leaves room for enhancements. The indexer understands  PDF, DOC, RTF, XLS, WPD, PPT, MP3, HTML and TXT documents, but is quite slow.

Compared to Windows' built-in search facility, Filehand is an improvement. Is it better or worse than GDS? That depends on your needs. If  you need integrated web search, GDS is the way to go. If not, Filehand is an interesting choice. Both need to support more file formats, though.

Filehand needs Windows 2000 or later and .NET 1.1.

Via heise online.