Microsoft to Release Desktop Search Tool by Year End

CNET News.com is reporting that Microsoft has set a firmer date for the release of its desktop search software.



During its earnings call with financial analysts, Microsoft said an MSN-branded tool would be made available before the end of 2004. The tool and an algorithmic Web searching engine will be in beta testing by year's end, a representative said.



Microsoft first demonstrated the technology for its own desktop search tool at a financial analysts' conference in July. At the time, MSN executive Yusuf Mehdi would say only that it would be out before the release of Longhorn, the next version of Windows.



The PC search technology that Mehdi showed allowed a computer user to search within Microsoft's Outlook e-mail client as well as within Windows folders such as "My Documents." It was just two weeks prior to the demonstration that Microsoft acquired Lookout Software, a small company with technology for searching e-mail, which may have allowed Microsoft to make progress on the local hard-drive search technology.