Google has a fantastic new desktop search system appropriately enough called Google Desktop that allows you to search your computer’s files just like a Google search. I’ve been looking for something like this for ages, and it seems to work quite well. Sadly, it only works on Windows and only searches emails through Outlook and web pages through Internet Explorer (using either of which is like giving Ted Kennedy a bottle of whisky, your car keys, and your wife), but they’re hoping to add support for Mozilla and other browsers later.
Especially for work, this tool is simply fantastic. Given how patently unorganized I can get, having a tool that automatically lets me to a keywork search on all my various documents is something of a godsend.
UPDATE: I should mention that it’s just in beta, and not yet quite feature complete. For instance, you can’t define what it does and does not scan at this point. I still find it insanely useful, but if you’re not as adventurous as I you may want to wait a bit before giving it a try.
I found it unhelpful at work. It goes onto the network and searches EVERYBODY’S files. Many many thousands. I couldn’t find a way to ask it to only look at my files.
I’d imagine they’ll add that feature later, since it is still in beta.