I noticed an eWeek article this morning titled Microsoft Won't Bundle Desktop Search with Windows which has had me scratching my head all morning. The article contains the following excerpts

Microsoft Corp. has no immediate plans to integrate desktop search into its operating system, a company executive said at a conference here this weekend.
...
Indeed, while including desktop search in Windows might seem like a logical step to many, "there's no immediate plan to do that as far as I know," Kroese said. "That would have to be a Bill G. [Microsoft chairman and chief software architect Bill Gates] and the lawyers' decision."

I thought Windows already had desktop search. In fact, Jon Udell of  Infoworld recently provided a screencast in his blog post Where was desktop search when we needed it? which shows off the capabilities of the built-in Windows desktop search which seems almost on par with the recent offerings from MSN, Google and the like.

Now I'm left wondering what the EWeek article means. Does it mean there aren't any plans to replace the annoying animated dog  with the MSN butterfly? That Microsoft has access to a time machine and will go back and rip out desktop search from the operating system including the annoying animated dog? Or is there some other obvious conclusion that can be drawn from the facts and the article that I have failed to grasp?

The technology press really disappoints me sometimes.


 

Thursday, February 3, 2005 3:33:31 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
http://weblogs.asp.net/sbchatterjee/archive/2005/02/02/366010.aspx
Thursday, February 3, 2005 4:09:22 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
You seem to have misread my blog post. I was pointing out that it is silly to say that Microsoft won't 'bundle' desktop search in Windows because it already shipped desktop search in Windows several years ago and it's still there.
Friday, February 4, 2005 1:52:39 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
Dare -
When the lengthy EU legal proceedings were on there were quite a few write-ups (analysis) about it in various EU journals. I think it was the Financial Times or the Economists who cited the various features within Windows that can/or was considered as 'seperate' app functions - media player, IE and desktop search were a few under consideration. I see your point but I don't think MSFT would push it seperately.
SBC

Saturday, February 5, 2005 5:20:54 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
Why do you need MS Desktop Search when your computer already has MS Desktop Search installed - Microsoft just didn't tell you until now how to use it.

http://labnol.blogspot.com/2005/01/microsoft-wont-bundle-desktop-search.html
http://labnol.blogspot.com/2004/12/do-you-really-need-ms-desktop-search.html
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