MSN Desktop Search now in Beta

As you may have heard by now, MSN Desktop Search has now shipped to beta! This is the product I’ve been working on with a team of great engineers at Microsoft.

I could write a gushing review of the product, but I’m too close to the product to be credible anyway. Perhaps a better way to do it is to quote from another blog (this one is from Sriram Krishnan), but many others are saying similar things as well:

Mr. Krishnan writes:
So what is the answer to the big question – who has the better desktop search product (taking into consideration that both of them are beta products and may change radically) ?

Answer: Microsoft. Totally. MSN Desktop Search takes Google Desktop Search to the cleaners. And here’s why (apart from the major points covered by all those reviews)

Lastly, you can check out the MSN Search Blog for the latest tips & tricks.

“In praise of full inboxes”

I didn’t write that, it was written by Slacker Manager, and its a fun little read. You’ll see I even posted a comment on his blog….

But, its really fascinating to watch email evolve when people are given a tool like email search. The first reaction people have is, “cool!”…. But then, over the coming weeks and months, people’s habits actually change. Slowly, our shackles (folders) become unnecessary, and we’re free to not worry so much about where we left stuff. After 3-4 months, users invariably report back that they don’t rely on folders nearly as much.

I’m no genius; I didn’t think of this brilliant idea. But its nice to know that something you had a part of could actually change the world (gross over-dramatization there), even if it is in just some small way.

Rojo Newsreader

If you read a lot of RSS, you should definitely check out a new service from a company called Rojo. Its “RSS Mojo”, they say.

They are still in beta, and they took a lesson from Gmail for how to gain users – you need to be part of the “in” crowd and get an invite from someone that is already a user!

But once you are in, there are several cool features. First, its a server side aggregator; but more than that, it allows you to tag and comment on articles which are interesting. You can also create a network of friends and share your content with them and they with you. Rojo’s engine then works hard to present to you the most relevant articles that others have found useful as well. Its a cool concept – I look forward to having more buddies using it so we can really get a try for the network effects of sharing RSS commentary.

Rojo was co-founded by Chris Alden, who is the co-founder of Red Herring magazine.