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up vote -9 down vote favorite

Google gives me results from the "vast internets" within microseconds. Those results are (or used to be) utterly awesome. They have changed the world.

Okay, but when I want to search my "vast store" of PDFs, HTML, and other docs (that never get edited but only accessed) I keep for my research, inspiration and reference, Finder is a good reflection on its name. Windows Explorer was no better when I used that OS, and I never found any app on Ubuntu beside grep, which, well, just didn't really do as well as Google. And Google Drive just seems to be quite bad at this, too.

Should it not be possible to build an awesome file search desktop / device app that does IR indexing, some metrics of relevance (folder structure, user access count, download from), and can give me Google quality results from my HD within microseconds?

I have an entire hard disk and processor dedicated to one app, I don't mind if it indexes a PDF file every time it goes in, or if it does an initial index build that takes a while.

Also, such a really top notch app should interleave (or annotate) these results with real web results using the Google search API, for extreme usefulness.

Dropbox is awesome for files that always get edited, the undelete and versioning is really rather good, but it's not the search app I can use when I need to dip in to my "vast" curated collection of useful docs I grabbed from the web, and do some brainstorming.

Do I have to build this one myself, or is it out there, somewhere?

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Must you use such extreme vulgar language? Google is fast because its able to cache what it finds, there are so many search queries, after the intial query the results are faster. If you want to know the reason for your downvote its because of your language. That type of language is not acceptable, and i choose not to remove it myself, just because you choose to use it. – Ramhound Feb 28 at 13:29
I don't even see an on topic question to be honest. You don't mention what version of these operating systems your using. On my personal systems every single file is indexed and I don't have this problem. – Ramhound Feb 28 at 13:32

closed as off topic by Dave M, Xavierjazz, wizlog, Scott, Nifle Mar 3 at 19:39

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2 Answers

up vote 1 down vote

Firstly, I think this community appreciates civility. I would strongly appeal to you to edit your question.

As for the answer to your question, on Windows we have Everything which you can find HERE. A short description:

"Everything" is an administrative tool that locates files and folders by filename instantly for Windows. Unlike Windows search "Everything" initially displays every file and folder on your computer (hence the name "Everything"). You type in a search filter to limit what files and folders are displayed.

It uses the MFT in NTFS as an index of files, hence the fast speed.

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I edited my question. Thanks for letting me know. – Cris Stringfellow Feb 28 at 13:47
Is it so fast and useful? I have not tried it. – Cris Stringfellow Feb 28 at 13:47
okay wow. That is impressive. – Cris Stringfellow Feb 28 at 13:49
I don't feel it is answered. I think it needs to have the best file search apps for all major OS. – Cris Stringfellow Mar 1 at 20:36
up vote 0 down vote

  1. Upload your "vast store" of PDFs, HTML and other docs to a domain of yours where Google has access to.

  2. Let Google index it.

  3. Then search like this: <keywords> site:myvaststore.com or whatever your domain is called.

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Yes but I don't want to do that. I want it on my desktop. – Cris Stringfellow Feb 28 at 13:37

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