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DECEMBER 15, 2004
By Jay Greene Desktop Search: It's Getting Serious The launch of Microsoft's test version throws down a gauntlet to Google. With Yahoo! and Ask Jeeves gearing up, too, a battle is brewing If you ever want to get Microsoft's (MSFT ) dander up, just challenge the software giant on its home turf, the Windows operating system. Microsoft thinks of Windows as a "platform," the foundation on which the personal-computing industry is built. So when America Online (TWX ) emerged in the '90s and its subscribers used Windows PCs simply as a way to log on to the service, Microsoft came to view it as a major rival. Then Microsoft turned its sights on Netscape when it surfaced with its browser as the entry point to the Web, yet another program that let people skip past Windows to get work done. MERE CONDUIT. These days, the folks in Redmond see few companies as more threatening than Google (GOOG ). It's the way Web surfers find information, relegating Windows to a mere conduit to connecting to Google. That's why Microsoft has been ginning up new bits of software to rival Google at every turn. The latest came on Dec. 13, when Microsoft launched a test version of a desktop-search application, a program that lets people quickly find documents, e-mail messages, music, photos, and other files on their PCs from one toolbar. The move follows Google, which launched its own desktop search program in October. Yahoo! (YHOO ) plans to offer one in January, and Ask Jeeves (ASKJ ) will launch a test version on Dec. 15. SMARTER SIFTING. Why are so many companies diving into the business? After all, consumers pay nothing for the desktop technology. But the search companies are betting that once consumers get comfortable with one service, they're likely to turn to it for Web searches as well, where advertising dollars continue to grow. What's more, search technology is increasingly becoming a core computing function, much like e-mail and Web surfing. The winner of the search wars will likely find itself in a better position to offer other key software and services, each of which could diminish the importance of Windows. That's why Microsoft is so keen to jump in. "We want to offer you the best and broadest search out there," says Yusuf Mehdi, vice-president of the MSN Information Services and Merchant Platform division at Microsoft. Unlike the search feature that ships with Windows XP today, MSN's desktop search lets people sift through all sorts of files -- from e-mail to photos to music -- from one spot. And it limits its search to the files that people typically try to find, such as documents or photos, not core computing programs inside the operating system. The application indexes every one of those files so that searching them becomes zippy. PRIME TIME '05. In typical Microsoft fashion, it works great with Microsoft products such as Windows and Office. Not so much, though, with rival software. Microsoft says its supports 64 different file types. But those don't include Lotus Notes or Word Perfect. Microsoft expects the software's final version to be ready by early 2005. That's about the same time that it's new Web-search technology -- also aimed squarely at Google -- should be ready for prime time. Microsoft is hoping it can out-Google Google. If history is any lesson, this will be a good fight to watch.  Greene is BusinessWeek's Seattle bureau chief Edited by Jim Kerstetter
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