How to make Outlook 2003 searching fast and accurate?

Question

Does anybody know of a plugin for Outlook 2003 that makes the search fast and accurate?

I tried using Microsoft Search and Google Desktop Search but I find that these product slow down my development machine too much.

I heard of Lookout but it appears that Microsoft has pulled it.

Answer 1

I'm not quite sure how "lightweight" you want, but I've had an extremely pleasant experience with Xobni. It integrates directly into the Outlook UI. In addition to providing extremely fast search, it also provides a bunch of other benefits, such as contact information extraction (automatically figuring out people's phone numbers, for example), showing an entire thread of discussion inline à la Gmail, and optionally integrating with LinkedIn. Because it integrates just with Outlook, rather than running all over the system like Google Desktop, the load on my system appears to be roughly the same as it used to be with LookOut; your mileage may vary.

Answer 2

I like Lookeen as it can search Public Folders too, which I believe Xobni does not.

It also is definitely more lightweight than Xobni in terms of UI.

(I haven't used Xobni myself but I keep seeing it on colleagues' machines.)

Answer 3

LookOut is still very easy to find -- just Google for "lookout download".

Craig H adds:
I heard some good things about Lookout, but I heard Microsoft bought them and now it is hard to find. I did a quick google search and couldn't come up with much except this JOS article.

Edit: I stand corrected, you can download Lookout here.

Answer 4

Have you tried the new Desktop Search 4.0? I've found that it is not as obnoxious as earlier versions.

Copernic Desktop Search is okay and might do the trick for you.