Chow down on those biscuits. Yummm. They keep bringing out the things they think I need, to the point where I buy into the idea that I need it too, but in the end I'll find out I am just eating people.

What exactly am I talking about here (besides a classic 70's sci-fi movie)? The endless Desktop Search applications coming out. MSN's is out now, thrown into the mix with Google, Copernic, X1, dtSearch, and now Yahoo has one on the way too (via a deal with X1). What's funny is that I really wasn't aware I needed a desktop search tool that bad. I really don't have a problem finding things on my computer. Sure, I was excited when The Google Desktop Search came out. I've blogged about it as did the rest of the world. I'm not saying that Desktop Search isn't a worth-while idea. It's great to have when you need it. Since I installed Google Desktop I've used it only once or twice. That's one or two times more than I used Copernic. I mean, does anyone really use it that much?

I suppose I could see myself using it to search through my source code. I have files and files of code from old projects. Every now and then I need to find something I did once and it is nice for those times. Also for searching though old e-mails. But these are places where this kind of thing should just be a part of - built in. Sadly they are not. Even with the growing list of desktop search tools I find that I guess I just don't need one that much. However, everyone has to have one. Was there really this huge need all of the sudden and timing of things just turn out they all came out the same year, or did Google just make the others suffer from search envy so they had to come out with their own? Maybe the hype around WinFS and the prolonged delays caused everyone to want desktop searching (even though that is really just a misunderstanding about what WinFS is all about). Who knows.

But, I'll go get my MSN Search biscuits. At least they are indexing IFilters. I could download more of those or roll my own to get more out of my searches, but I doubt I would use it any more. I guess I am not alone in my bewilderment of the desktop search craze. Gregg Thomason posted a great rant on the subject

Hehe. Well, for those of you running Windows 2003, Joel Ross posted a workaround to get it installed (officially not installable on Win2K3). Myself, I guess I'm just a little underwhelmed. Is there one that's better than the others? Does it matter? I guess for now, I'll just keep on trying all of Soylent's delicious flavors: Soylent red, Soylent yellow, and new, delicious, Soylent green.  ;-)