“Microsoft’s MSN division on Monday launched its Toolbar and Windows Desktop Search product after five months of beta testing. The new toolbar promises to give a taste what search experience Longhorn is expected to bring. Noticeably missing from the final release, however, was a tabbed browsing feature that appeared in early betas,” Ed Oswald reports for BetaNews.
“Apple recently added a desktop search feature of its own within the latest version of its operating system, Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. Called Spotlight, the feature works much like MSN’s, which has caused some consternation internally within Microsoft,” Oswald reports. “Some within have claimed that Apple lifted the idea straight out of early builds of Longhorn. Apple, on the other hand, said publicly that the idea for Spotlight had been in the works for several years — long before any inklings of improved search capabilities within Windows came out of Redmond.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Spotlight works “much like” MSN’s? Not a chance, unless you also believe that Lebron James plays basketball much like your friend Joe down the street. And, by the way, Apple has had an integrated search system that indexed local hard drives, server volumes, and the internet itself since 1998 with Sherlock in Mac OS 8.5. More about Apple’s Sherlock here. More about Apple’s powerful new Spotlight technology here. If you’re not stuck on Windows (with its weak MSN search) and Internet Explorer, open the links in tabs for convenience. Isn’t is amazing how far ahead Apple was with Sherlock and that so few seem to remember that fact?
Apple’s new Spotlight, built-into Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger isn’t some bolted on hack like MSN and the other search programs out there for Windows. With Spotlight, when you make a change, such as adding a new file, receiving an email or entering a new contact, Spotlight updates its index automatically, so search results are always up-to-the-moment accurate. Changes don’t have to wait to be indexed in order to show up in search results correctly.
Microsoft’s losing their collective mind. Perhaps MS should spend less time trying and failing to rewrite history and more time actually trying to rewrite Windows to overcome its many failings?
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Microsoft holds ‘Thought Thieves’ short film competition focusing on intellectual property theft – May 12, 2005
CBS News: how envious Windows users can attempt to poorly simulate Mac OS X Tiger’s Spotlight – May 04, 2005
Apple offers free installs of Mac OS X Tiger; IDC analyst Kay thinks Google Desktop equals Spotlight – April 29, 2005
Thurrott: Apple copying Microsoft’s Longhorn search features with Mac OS X ‘Spotlight’ – December 15, 2004
Apple Exec: Mac OS X Tiger’s ‘Spotlight’ system-wide search tech inspired by iTunes – July 02, 2004
Stupid is as stupid does. And how is Ms acting right now?
Lifted it from Longhorn? Tiger is shipping. Spotlight is not in beta. That would mean that Apple would have needed to lift the idea from beta’s of Longhorn (or the MSN search engine), devoted inordinate amounts of programming time and effort into making a workable model, and ship it out the door, non-beta, a full 18 months before the proposed Longhorn introduction. Is this even possible? Considering all of the FUD that Billy G has been spewing lately, I’m wondering if there isn’t a good ol’ RDF forming around the minds and bodies working at Redmond.
As I recall, Jobs had mentioned that much of what Spotlight is based on came from iTune’s search technology. Before iTunes, I hadn’t seen that real-time as you type search.
Oui oui oui, I eat garden snails and frogs and poop on Monsieur Gate!
the MSN search is a copy of Goolge only created after Windows amited they “missed the boat” on internet search services.
Microsoft is insane —
“As I recall, Jobs had mentioned that much of what Spotlight is based on came from iTune’s search technology. Before iTunes, I hadn’t seen that real-time as you type search.”
FYI, Winamp and XMMS (Winamp clone for Linux) have had this kind of real-time search as you type for a loooong time.
I have a CD ROM with a demo for Copland (Apples abandoned OS project) that shows exactly the kind of search (including smart folders) we have today in tiger.
Its not even an idea by NeXT, its an original Apple idea, based on the AIAT project (Apple Information Access Technology) that eventually became Sherlock.
MS is so pathetic with their whining!!!
And the myopia at M$ continues at full force obviously…
did bill eat shit ….. lol
I’ve said before…
It’s not revolutionary, it’s evolutionary and Microsoft’s growth has just stunted. It’s the logical next step in operating systems not a breakthrough idea that was stolen by anybody. My Palm Pilot III had integrated search with categorized results back in ’96. (Earlier version may have had it as well, as may have BeOS or whatever, I don’t know)
Just remember the ole BeOS. Thats where Spotlight really comes from. And it just happen to be so that one of the BeOS engineers that worked on the filesystem now works for Apple. So MS just forget about it.
Perhaps the new MSN search tool bar will be good news for Apple. It might encourage people to compare what M$ offers in search TODAY with Apple’s Spotlight, rather than an imaginary perfect feature in Longhorn. All we need is a bunch of smart reviews comparing the two offerings side-by-side, of the kind that Apple has received in the last month or so since releasing Tiger (i.e., smart reviewers). This is a fairly simple feature for which it should be very easy to comparison reviews, and which just about every consumer understands and appreciates.
Max. Isn’t Winamp about the same vintage as Sherlock?
Doesn’t Spotlight use the grep command, that’s been in UNIX for decades?
MW: moral. You just can’t make this shit up.
AltaVista provided a desktop search tool way back in about 1996
Yeah!…and MS invented the internet too!
MW=freedom as in freedom to talk bullshit!
Hey, MDN, where’s that article you posted about Apple having filed a patent for Spotlight way before Longhorn was ever even announced?
The more outrageous the comments out of Gates, Ballmer and others at MS simply demonstrate that MS is hugely concerned at the impact Tiger is having.
Aslo see MS shaking hands with anyone who will shake theirs – they know their time is running out…
I know of so many people now who are switching. Go Apple!
Algore invented ALL search engines. (He was trying to find Slick Willy in the oval office) that was before he came to Apple. So Apple must have stolen from MS.
Algore also coined the name Longhorn after he met Willy.
Here’s what I can’t figure out.
How could Apple have lifted it, reverse engineered it, moved to the Mac/BSD platform, deliver it market – all after Microsoft has announced that it will be scaled back huge in Longhorn????
I think MS HR should be looking to hire Apple developers away from Apple if it were true.
But since we all know it is a big pile of sh*t, we may as well grin and bear it. The bottom line is this. We have it and they don’t!
MS Patchers….uggggghhhhh idiots (said like Napolean can only say it!)
-G5Man
ron,
Algore was indexing the wrong location. He should’ve indexed Monica’s mouth if he wanted to find the Slick Willy.
Ron said: “So Apple must have stolen from MS.”
Since Al currently is on Apple’s team and he’s the one who invented all things Internet/search, the technology is clearly Apple’s and has nothing to do with MS.
If you’re going to take a jab at Gore (and goodness knows he deserves it) at least keep the insult internally consistent.
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-B
How do you know all this stuff Beeblebrox?
BTW, his name is Algore.
maccam: not sure about sherlock, but I belive winamp goes back to ’97-’98.