Entries tagged with windows search - Channel 10

Flickr Search Connectr For Windows 7

sarahintampa — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 18:45:00 GMT

One of my all-time favorite bloggers, Long Zheng of istartedsomething.com, has just introduced a new search connector he programmed himself for integration into the Windows 7 search service. The connector is a combination of the OpenSearch Description File generator (aka the “Search Connector” in Windows 7) and the Flickr web service. This new software takes advantage of one of the less-discussed features in the upcoming OS – federated search.

In case you’re not familiar with that term, it means the simultaneous search of multiple online databases or web resources. Zheng notes that the feature may not have gotten the attention it deserves because it was marketed as a way to search SharePoint sites from within Windows 7. While that is sure to get some I.T. admins to sit up and take notice, consumers won’t care as much unless you do something “cool” – like make a tool that searches Flickr.

This feature of Windows 7 is easy for developers to code for as it uses open standards OpenSearch and RSS2. Yes, open standards to interact with something implemented natively in the Windows shell. (You can close your mouth now, it’s not that shocking.)

Anyway, as far as what the tool can do, it’s simple: you can search flickr photos right from within the Windows shell. To the end user, it doesn’t appear any different than a search for photos actually saved on the PC itself. Talk about blurring the lines between PC and web!

Other possibilities Zheng suggests for this feature are searching files on your remote Windows Home Server, searching music on Pandora, searching for videos on Soapbox, etc. (Oh, please please build me those too!)

Anyone who’s running one of the pre-beta versions of Windows 7 can go ahead and start playing with this feature now. It’s a free download from here: http://www.istartedsomething.com/flickrsearch.

Filter Pack For Windows Search

sarahintampa — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 22:28:00 GMT

I had been using the latest and greatest search tool for my XP PC, Windows Search 4.0, but somehow I had missed this: the Filter Pack for searching in Office documents. With the the Microsoft Filter Pack installed, Windows Search 4.0 is able to search within Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other Office 2007 documents based on the text they contain. It also works for Vista too, adding new search capabilities which can be accessed right from Vista’s search bar. Now when you do a search, the Windows indexing service doesn’t just search for file names but also knows what’s in the files themselves, and that makes finding the right file so much easier.

IT admins will want to read further instructions found on the download page about how the new Filter pack can be installed into Exchange, SharePoint, SQL Server, and other Server products. The Filter Pack also works on Windows Server 2003, Vista, and XP. You can download it from here.

Indexer Sidebar Gadget

sarahintampa — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 15:23:00 GMT

Are you using Windows Search or the Windows Search 4.0 Preview to index your PC's files for quick and easy searching? Then you might like the Windows Indexer Status Gadget from Brandon Paddock. Brandon, a member of the Windows Shell team, created this gadget to keep tabs on how many files Windows Search has indexed. You can also use the gadget to see how many items still need to be processed or open the indexing options control panel. With the pause and play buttons, you can start and stop indexing from running, and, if you're running Windows Search 4.0 Preview, there is an "Index Now" button, too. You can even change the gadget's colors! Download the gadget here.