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Late yesterday, Yahoo announced the launch of their desktop search application that will compete directly with offerings from Google and MSN. At first glance, YDS appears superior in features and performance to Google and MSN desktop search apps.

Yahoo has introduced their desktop search utility. Which one do you prefer using? Or do you use desktop search at all? Discuss at WebProWorld.

There is no cost or obligation to download and use the software. However, once installed you see a direct link to an enterprise targeted product called X1 Desktop Search.

X1 is the brainchild of entrepreneur Bill Gross, who conceived and developed a similar product, called Lotus Magellan in 1989. Bill Gross is the founder of Idealab a company that incubates Internet startups such as X1. Idealab founded Overture which of course was acquired by Yahoo in 2003.

Yahoo is now a "strategic partner" with X1. I think we can safely assume that Yahoo is using X1 technology as the basis for its free desktop search application. This is different than Google and MSN which primarily used technology developed by their in-house programmers.

This explains why Yahoo's Desktop Search seems to be much further advanced than Google and MSN's desktop search.

One cool feature you notice right after install is the preview window built into the YDS software. This is especially useful for searching and perusing email and other written documents.

Yahoo believes that they "are going beyond the desktop" with this product. Yahoo's Bradley Horowitz and Jeremy Zawodny announced the YDS beta in their blog and stated:

"The notion of a "desktop" is changing. Most products are built with the premise that your desktop is just a way of seeing what's on your computer's hard disk. But in today's world, many of us create, find, use, and share information that lives in many places. Some of it lives on your computer, some lives on Yahoo! and other on-line services, some may live on other computers or devices on your home network.

We don't think you should have to think about where your stuff is stored in order to find it. That's where this is all headed. And as YDS evolves, you'll see that becoming more and more clear."

Here are a few of the features as mentioned in the blog:

1. Speed. YDS is really fast.

2. Instant Feedback. YDS provides incremental search, much like you find in Firefox. As you type each character of your search, the results are updated instantly. Not only does this mean less typing, but you'll catch spelling mistakes a lot faster too.

3. Comprehensiveness. YDS indexes a lot of file types. Over 200.

4. Built in Preview: YDS renders a preview view for most of the 200+ file types and enables you to page through the preview, so you don't need to launch the full-blown application just to see if you've found the right document. You can page through a PowerPoint, Word or PDF doc, examine individual cells in Excel, or even play an mp3 file - right there in YDS.

5. Actions. If you right click on a result, YDS provides a context-specific menu that allows you to do things with the email or document: reply, forward, print, open, etc.

6. Cost. YDS is free.

You can download Yahoo Desktop Search here...