MSN Desktop Search is finally out

As expected, Microsoft has finally released a beta of their Desktop Search software. It is integrated with their Browser Toolbar set and is now labeled MSN Toolbar Suite Beta.

The download size is huge compared to Google Desktop Search at 4.8megs and you would need to download another add-on worth 3.78megs just to enable PDF searching. Not exactly a surprise considering it is Microsoft!

The suite comes with three separate toolbars. One is installed in Internet Explorer, another in Microsoft Outlook and the last one as a Deskbar. The search results are displayed as expected in Internet Explorer integrated with MSN Search Beta and in first impression looks to be pretty feature rich.

It definitely looks good though I am pretty worried about the amount of memory the crawlers are taking. All the new services added in the Task Manager consumed well over 20 Megs on this test system.

TechWhack would be back with a more comprehensive review in a couple of days, considering desktop search would take just more than a couple of hours to really find out the truth. However, sleekness of the the help system and toolbar clearly shows how much Google is inspiring Microsoft.

Download: MSN Toolbar Suite Beta