Reading around the web today, it surprises me how few people actually understand what Spotlight is. I’ve read a number of pages and discussion threads discussing the various aspects of Spotlight in Tiger (a product shipping April 29) and the proposed metadata search function in Longhorn (to be released at an unknown date approximately 18 months away), and some people ask what the big deal is. The find function in their current OS finds files, why all the hub-bub about Spotlight?
Spotlight is much more than a simple database of filenames and contents. It is a system service with an accompanying API that any developer can use which lets users organize content by setting some simple parameters.
As an example, Mail comes with Smart Mailboxes. I can easily create a Smart Mailbox that includes all e-mail I’ve received in my .Mac account since April 1 that’s from Steve Jobs and has an attachment and the word “Tiger” in the subject line. This is not a filter that redirects e-mail to a folder as it is received. This is a query that searches current and incoming e-mail and subsequently presents that query as a folder for human viewing. The e-mail messages are not moved from the inbox.
Likewise, the Finder has Smart Folders. If the need arises, you can create a Smart Folder that contains all PDF files created between March 1 and March 15 2005 that contain the word “java”. Or maybe for troubleshooting purposes you simply need a Smart Folder that contains all the files created or modified since yesterday. The files are not moved to the folder; the folder itself is the query, and opening the folder performs the search which means that any new Spotlight-indexable content is immediately added. Any developer can create a plug-in that enables Spotlight to index a particular file format.
With a little bit of thought, you may be able to imagine how Spotlight could apply to an application you use frequently.
If users can find files and their contents by typing in a few letters, some say, there doesn’t seem to be much point in organizing files on a drive, or for the Finder as a whole. Eh, let’s not jump the gun. There are still a number of things the Finder does that Spotlight doesn’t, such as copying files. Spotlight is very cool, but this is its first iteration and it will mature over the next several years. It may be Apple’s long-term strategy to supplant the Finder with Spotlight’s descendants, but for now Spotlight is a compliment to the Finder rather than a replacement. Finding content via Spotlight will probably seem simpler than navigating folders, but the Finder is still needed.
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April 20th, 2005 at 1:35 pm
Aaron,
Thanks for the great note’s on Spotlight. I’ve been getting tired of the Windows based media giving their take on what it is or isn’t.
Personally I don’t see Apple ever doing away with the Finder and replacing it with Spotlight. It just doesn’t make sense for too many reason’s.
What I am a little surprised at was that Apple did not integrate Spotlight INTO the Finder but instead gave it it’s own little icon on the menu bar. This is not the functionality I was expecting at all when I was first reading reviews of the Tiger beta’s over the last few month’s
Is it what you expected it to be?
-Shawn
What I
April 20th, 2005 at 1:43 pm
Spotlight is integrated into the Finder. The search box in the upper right of Finder windows is a Spotlight-based search, and Smart Folders can be created from those results. In fact, the Smart Folder option in the Finder File menu opens a Finder window and performs the same search as if you used the text box in the upper right. The icon in the upper right of the menu bar is a system-wide Spotlight search that is available from any application.
April 20th, 2005 at 2:19 pm
Aaron,
Have you actually tried it?
One the machine I tested it on when using the actual Finder Search I could not get it to search my E-Mail. When clicking on the Blue Spotlight icon in the menu bar it found my E-Mail just fine!
Is this a descrepancy? Or maybe just my ineptitude with my new Mac and Mac OS X.
-Shawn
April 20th, 2005 at 2:29 pm
Yes.
The search function in the Finder is specific to objects meaningful to the Finder, as it is for each application. E-mail is handled by Mail, not the Finder, so the Finder won’t return Mail messages to a search result. Likewise, using the Spotlight-based search in Mail will return e-mail messages and not files and folders in the file system. The Spotlight icon in the menu bar is a system-wide search that returns results for everything. It makes perfect sense.
April 20th, 2005 at 2:40 pm
Aaron,
Yes, that was indeed what I thought was happening. However from my perspective the Finder Spotlight Search and the Menu bar Spotlight search should function the exact same way, and return the same results. Not results based on what folder I was in at the time. Very confusing for a new mac owner. The Finder is not a typical app like mail, or stickies. It is a system wide file explorer and should behave as such!
Once again this should probably be an option. Yes to search system wide, no to search context sensitively.
And why on earth would I actually want to open the Mail app if I was just trying to find an e-mail? I thought that was the whole idea behind Spotlight, the search anything, anywhere, anytime, from any window technology.
-Shawn
April 20th, 2005 at 8:05 pm
Spotlight in the Finder doesn’t return results based on what folder you’re looking at. It returns results that are relevant to the Finder application. Finder is meant to handle files and folders, so those are the results returned.
It does. When you search, it returns files and folders.
Once again this should probably be an option. Yes to search system wide, no to search context sensitively.
It is an option. At any time, from any application, Spotlight in the menu bar is available system wide. Or to search for objects that pertain to a particular application, use that app’s search.
You don’t have to. The system-wide Spotlight in the menu bar is always available to find all Spotlight-indexable objects. But when you enter a search phrase in the search box in Mail, it shouldn’t return file system objects (because Mail doesn’t handle those), only e-mail.
Yes, and it does exactly that… again, from the menu bar.
April 21st, 2005 at 11:45 am
Aaron,
Yes ok, this does make a little more sense now. Keep in mind I am coming from the Windows world where you pull up a Windows Find Window, type in something you are looking for and come back in 15 minutes to an hour later and hope that it found something. Thought it seldom if ever does
Thanks for the little “How the mac works” tutorial. It will ease my “switcher” frustration level.
-Shawn
April 21st, 2005 at 12:58 pm
It’s all good. I understand it’s sometimes difficult to grasp how things work when you haven’t used them very much. It took me a while to get used to some things about the Mac when I bought my first one.
April 25th, 2005 at 4:38 pm
what spotlight ‘wants’ to be
http://quicksilver.blacktree.com
(note that this will be updated shortly to take advantage of Spotlight results.. making it even sweeter..)
April 25th, 2005 at 9:51 pm
I don’t think that’s accurate. Spotlight’s point is to provide the underlying framework so developers can write application like Quicksilver more easily.
May 9th, 2005 at 3:22 pm
Aaron!
Hey long time…
I just found this cool new app called Amnesty Widget Browser, which will let me put the dashboard widgets on the desktop all the time!
It’s been working great for me
http://www.mesadynamics.com/amnesty.htm
Enjoy!
-Shawn
May 13th, 2005 at 10:58 pm
I think you forgot to mention that Spotlight utilizes the very stable SQL platform (in the flavor of FreeSQL I believe) to catalog data.
May 13th, 2005 at 11:04 pm
Good point, thank you. It’s SQLite, isn’t it?