“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
“bolted on hack”
Nice. Can I use that?
I feel so sorry with MS…
^Crap^
I can’t do a Fu**ing thing right. Microsoft stole that from me. And I want to be compensated for it. How about you guys release Longhore now. Or later they will still both work the same way.
OT: The US has “evolved” into an “oligarchy”? It is to laugh.
Do you think that Jefferson, Washington, or FDR, were paupers? Have you ever heard of the railroad barons and other wealthy industrialists of the 18th and 19th century who basically ran this country from the shadows? Apparently not.
Furthermore, you totally ignore that the last 6 presidents came from average to humble roots. The Bushes do not represent old money any more than Clinton, Reagan, Carter, Ford, or Nixon. GHWB came up through government ranks as essentially a white collar middle manager. His son, was just an average, middle of the road businessman. His rise to POTUS was not because he was a failed oil-man in Texas but because he was a highly successful governor of Texas.
The last really filthy rich “oligarchy-like” presidents were Johnson and JFK. And not to put too fine a point on it, let’s look at some of the losers in presidential races. The guys from the ultra wealthy ranks (Al Gore, Steve Forbes, Ross Perot, etc, etc.) were simply unable to buy themselves the job. Why is that? Obtaining the presidency requires not only wide spread grassroots support but also a certain down-home personal charisma. W, Clinton, and Reagan won the office because of this. The other recent presidents won in spite of not having this charisma but still won without being part of some oligarchical system.
The wealth in our government is and always has been found in the Senate. Those are the positions that you have to buy. Fine, that is the way it has been from day one and thank goodness for the House and the Presidency where one needs widespread popular support to get the job.
-B
People, I have to say something:
I love macs, but Spotlight completely and utterly sucks. I would do everything to get the old search back. Sorry.
Wasn’t Spotlight patented in 2001? There wasn’t even an workable version of Longhorn back then.
FOR THE LAST TIME, EFF’ING DRUNK NEW ORLEANS GUY…PAY ATTENTION…
“During my service in the United States Congress,” boasted Al Gore to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, “I took the initiative in creating the Internet.”
You are right to correct those of us who mock Gore when we use the term “invent” along side his name. “Create” is what Al said, not “invent”. Had he said “invent” everyone would have (rightly) branded him a liar. But, as Virginia Postrel wrote in Reason magazine,
“Al Gore was not lying to Blitzer. The vice president almost certainly believes that he “took the initiative in creating the Internet.” His claim reflects a particular understanding of the world and of recent technological history. As such, it reveals more than mere grandiosity and spin.”
The entire article is the definitive summary of the history of his claim (read the whole thing here: http://reason.com/9905/ed.vp.source.shtml)
Be an Al Gore apologist if you will but recognize that there is very little difference between the common understanding of the words “invent” and “create”.
cre·ate (kr-t)
tr.v. cre·at·ed, cre·at·ing, cre·ates
1. To cause to exist; bring into being.
2. To give rise to; produce.
-dictionary.com
Yes, maybe it is unfair to use the term “invent” in a derisive way when we all know he said “creating”. However, the problem is not that Gore was just being his normal self-serving, “look at me” arrogant jerk when he made his boast. Many people, myself included, believe he actually thought (thinks?) that without his “initiative” in to fund the university oriented NSFNet in 1987 that the Internet would not exist today. In other words, either he was trying to put one over on the unwashed, Windows using masses, or he was delusional enough to actually think that there was no Internet before he started promoting it at the legislative level.
But that said Drunk Guy, you’re right, we Republicans should quote Al correctly. Hopefully you’ll let us just use the shorthand: “Al Gore created the Internet” because it is still just as absurd and funny. Two traits we like about Al.
-B
Spotlight is okay, i think MS did a fairly good job on MSN Desktop Search…And since I use MSN Messenger all day…Its nice to be able to search within those IM records as well.
If we could just cut Microsoft’s taxes, then they could finish up Longhorn and still have time to go to church.
Praise Jesus.
Here is an article written by an Apple employee regarding WAIS and Rosebud in 1991. The indexer only worked with text files at the time, but I think the basic idea behind Spotlight and other free-form text search engine are decendents of WAIS. I don’t know if Apple had minor or major part in the development of WAIS, but I’m sure Microsoft was still too busy copying Apple’s GUI at the time.
http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/idom/irlist/new/1991/91-viii-34-77/Introduction_to_Wide_Area_Information_Servers_by_Steve_Cisler.html
First, apparently Al Gore fooled the people at the Webby Awards, so they must be stupid. Or is it the folks who can’t read the history of the internet who fall into that category?
Second, is being a Bush supporter the same as being thong underwear?
Since Spotlight is arguably OS X Tiger’s most questionable feature, it certainly qualifies as the type of feature that might have been lifted from Longhorn, even though it wasn’t.
“Yawn” to all of you.
The ARPA Net [Internet] started prior to 1968 at MIT.
What in the dickens has this got to do with MS stealing Apples ideas?
Or am I missing the point tooo . . yawn . . .
Bill Gates: smooth criminal
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/mugshots/gatesmug1.html
Microsoft recently chastised H.G. Wells for promoting Wells’ time machine as an “independently engineered and developed means of 4-dimensional travel.” Microsoft vigorously stated that Wells device is an exact replica of their apparatus for transversing the time-space continuum code named POS. Microsoft fully expects to release the beta-version of POS by late 2007. Microsoft did not divulge further details.
Oswald reports. “Some within have claimed that Apple lifted the idea straight out of early builds of Longhorn…”
BWAAA-HAHAHAHAHAHA! that’s funnier’n Hell!!
ROTFLMAO!!!
Al Gore rocks.
Yawn said: “What in the dickens has this got to do with MS stealing Apples ideas? Or am I missing the point tooo?”
I think the point was a not so subtle attempt by Ron to make a connection between the absurd claims of Gates and Co. regarding the creation of Spotlight-like search technology at Microsoft and Al Gore claiming to have created the Internet while in Congress. Both technologies predated their supposed “creator” so the comparison seems apropos.
Gates could have just as easily made Gore’s claim: “During my service at Microsoft I took the initiative in creating the search technology behind Spotlight.”
Who knows, in a few years when Longhorn comes out with searching capabilities now found in Spotlight, it will likely become wildly popular with the masses. Thus, just as Gore was indeed responsible, at least partly, for popularizing the Internet, Gates will be responsible, at least partly, for popularizing the Spotlight search technology.
So if by “create” both these guys mean “popularize”, then both have a point (in an absurd sort of way).
-B
MW: “Neither” as in, neither created anything.
Isn’t MS’s Longhorn search feature based largely on the WinFS filesystem which MS has said will not ship in Longhorn after all? Since WinFS won’t be in Longhorn, it’s hard to believe/accept that Longhorn will come close to Spotlight’s nearly instantaneous file searching.
No, if Apple lifted the idea from anything, it was BeOS (BeOS had instant file searching in 1997 thanks to its ahead-of-its-time database file system). This is also where MS got the idea (because no one in the industry had a working model of real-time searching before BeOS shipped).
Having successfully run OS/2 Warp for 6 years on my home PC, I’ve seen a lot of things that Microsoft lifted from competing products and their wild marketing claims that MS invented each one. It’s rather funny to see them whining about another company doing it.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: you Americans are one bunch of dumb people.
Ya can’t argue with god… he knows his stuff.
gods such a asshowl, he givd us Algore, Gaets and GW, now this spootlite thing. i am so confuzed.
Whoa, America guy; you got me there. I stand corrected.
I waited for Spotlight since 1995, when I received the Apple Demo CD for Mac OS 8 “Copland”. I felt in love with dynamic search folders.
Actually, most of the features of Copland are integrated in Tiger, so I am quite happy.
Obviously, Apple doesn’t need to look at M$ but at its own ideas in the past.
QuickTime Conferencing->ichat AV
AppleTalk->Bonjour
Copland Search->Spotlight
…
In 8.1 or so, you could alt-click in the search field and select a ‘search by content’. It was slow, but worked…