[dylug] Microsoft organizes Longhorn for easier data access

Microsoft organizes Longhorn for easier data access,
searches
It's working to make documents stored on PCs easier to
find
 
- Microsoft Corp. may have a keen interest in search,
but its next-generation Windows operating system looks
to be more of a threat to super-organized executive
assistants than to Google Inc.

Although the software maker has been steadily
investing in search, its upcoming operating system,
code-named Longhorn, is taking a new tack when it
comes to helping users locate desktop files.

In Longhorn, Microsoft is "moving away from search"
and concentrating on how people organize and find
documents, said Brad Goldberg, general manager of the
Windows Client Business Group. "We're hoping our users
never say they can't find a file again," Goldberg said
during an interview yesterday.

Longhorn won't tie together desktop and Internet
search capabilities, but instead will focus on
organization and offering users more ways to view
their documents, Goldberg said.

This strategy may come as a bit of a surprise, given
that Microsoft introduced a desktop search tool late
last year that offers tight integration with the
Windows environment and applications. The MSN Toolbar
Suite, introduced as a free beta version in December,
can search the Web from Microsoft's Internet Explorer
browser. It includes tools to index and retrieve
Microsoft Word and PowerPoint files, calendar items,
contacts and e-mail messages from Microsoft Outlook.

While the software maker faces numerous challengers in
the desktop search market -- including Google, Ask
Jeeves Inc., Yahoo Inc. and America Online Inc. --
Microsoft said when it launched Toolbar Suite that it
planned to win over users with its Windows
integration.

Now there appears to be a question as to how Longhorn,
due out in the second half of 2006, fits with
Microsoft's search efforts.

Goldberg said he believes that the way people gather
information will change and users will spend less time
searching the Web. Instead, they will use tools like
RSS (really simple syndication) feeds and XML to have
information they want pushed to them, he said.

With that in mind, Microsoft has been working on
making data stored on PCs easier to find by offering
Longhorn features such as virtual folders and
keywords, Goldberg said. Users will be able to create
virtual folders based on keywords, allowing them to
drop in related documents saved in various places on
their computers. All documents associated with
clients, for example, could be dragged to a virtual
"client" folder although they are located in different
company files, Goldberg said.

Longhorn will also have a dialog box in the start
panel where users can type a program or file name and
the software will find it without the user having to
open applications, he said.

Users hunting for a document will also be able to
click through various folders, without opening and
closing each one to locate it. Instead, a list will
appear across the top, telling the user how far down
the folder chain they have clicked. Users will also be
able to see how many documents are in a folder without
opening it, Goldberg said.

All these visualization and organization features are
Microsoft's way of solving the "Where did I save
that?" conundrum, without relying solely on a powerful
search engine.

Danny Sullivan, editor of SearchEngineWatch.com, said
that while better organization will certainly help
users locate desktop items, people are still going to
want to search the Web. And he dismissed the notion
that users will be performing fewer Web searches
because they will have more information pushed to
them.

"That is not going to happen. People aren't going to
subscribe to just what they want, because they don't
know what they want," Sullivan said.

While the official release of Longhorn is still a ways
off, Microsoft's decision to play up organization
rather than search could be because that's where the
company feels more comfortable, he said. "It seems
like they are saying that desktop search is not going
to be the trump card we're banking on," Sullivan said. 

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