Microsoft debuts desktop search tool

SEATTLE: Microsoft Corp. unveiled a new, preliminary version of its search tool for finding documents, e-mail and other files stored on personal computer hard drives.

The roll-out by the world's largest software maker comes as its rivals in the search arena, Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc., are also introducing desktop search tools to attract more users to their search-related services.

"Our ambition for search is to provide the ultimate information tool that can find anything you're looking for," said, Yusuf Mehdi, corporate vice president at the software giant's MSN Internet division.

Microsoft is deploying its new desktop search tool through a set of different toolbars that can be installed on the Windows desktop, the Internet Explorer browser and within Office Outlook, the e-mail, contacts and scheduling program.

The toolbar suite, which was launched in beta, or test, mode, can be downloaded from beta.toolbar.msn.com.

Google, the Web's top search engine, launched its desktop search tool in October and Yahoo said last week that its own tool would debut in January.

Yahoo and Google declined to comment on Microsoft's latest offering.

Ask Jeeves Inc., another search provider, bought desktop search company Tukaroo Inc. in June and said on Monday that it would launch its own desktop tool later this week.

Microsoft decided last year to build its own search engine technology to take on Google, the No.1 Web search provider. Last month, MSN launched its own Web search engine.

At stake is the lucrative income provided by advertisers seeking to display text-based ads alongside search results. Microsoft is aiming to keep people coming to its MSN online services, which generate advertising revenue.

Analysts have also noted that Microsoft's other products, most notably Windows, could be threatened if Google were to use its lead in search services to move into other computer and software services.

Joe Wilcox, analyst at Jupiter Research, noted in an online posting that Microsoft had not fixed the fundamental search tools included in Windows XP, the company's flagship operating system.

"Why tack on something else, add more overhead to the system, when fixing the underlying structure would make more sense?," Wilcox said.