Terra Lycos’ HotBot search site launched a search toolbar that includes the ability to search local hard-drive content and to read RSS feeds, reports eWeek.
The local-content search feature supports e-mail files from Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express, Microsoft Office files, PDFs and most text-based file formats. The toolbar also lets users index their Web-page browsing history so they can search content from those sites.
Eventually, this is a space everyone in the search business will be trying to break into.
Microsoft will have a plus over the rest when Longhorn is released with search being a major point for them. But still Google have been making in-roads to the desktop with their Google Deskbar, which can in the foreseeable future turn to searching local files as well as online destinations.
Who actually wins the battles in the end depends on how good their technology is. But obviously with Windows being their own, Microsoft has the best chances, I think.
[via Online Blog]
