The Joy of Search

Search is one of the most basic functions your computer provides. You often want to find a file you were working on, or a web page, or an email. Where computers fail is at integrating all of these search functions into one easy-to-use program. Google dominates internet search, whereas searching for local files is governed by your operating system, but what if I want to do both at once?

On a Mac, the local search feature is known as Spotlight. Click the magnifying glass in the upper-right corner of the screen, or simply press command-spacebar. Then start typing. Find recently opened documents, definitions for words...you can even type "2+2" and "4" appears. Documents are searched both by file name and by contents, so if you forgot what you named a document, you can still find if only you can remember some of the words inside the document. Search results display as you type. Just click a result once to open it. (You can also press the up and down arrows and then return to choose a result.) Mac users: if you're not using Spotlight now, or not frequently, it's time to change your habits! Use it to open applications, rather than the Dock. Don't worry about where you saved your document, just Spotlight it! You'll see your efficiency go up the more you use Spotlight.

However, what if I also want to search the web, my Gmail, and my Google Docs? Currently, there's no way to do this. There is a cute little program you can download called Google Quick Search Box, which seems like it would be just the thing, but sadly, it isn't. Rather than showing you search results immediately, you can double-click to launch a Google search in your web browser. That's hardly faster than just going to the web browser and searching. Also, it doesn't integrate Gmail and Google Docs. Ugh. Come on, Google, give us what we want!

-Webb