Spotlight -- big deal or not??

[almostconverted]

I have been holding off on my Powerbook purchase (will be my first Apple since the IIc) until Tiger is released. My main reason for waiting is that, to me, Spotlight seems revolutionary -- I would love to be able to quickly search for text across all file types (I am not very organized but generally remember key words regarding what I am looking for). A lot of posts and reviews seem to gloss over Spotlight or call it a minor upgrade. To me, it seems like a huge deal. Am I missing something? Isn't the Spotlight functionality what the Google desktop will provide and what Longhorn supposedly is after? How different will Spotlight be from what Panther has to search files? Thanks in advance....

 

[PlaceofDis]

i would say that spotlight is a big deal, and the reason being is that it will expand and be able to do more than what Google's desktop does and what pather's current search does. Spotlight will allow you to not only search for names, but also index and search the metadata of files as well, meaning you will be able to find anything easily with it, and smart forlders will be great to have as well (do they have live updating?)

 

[munkle]

, and smart forlders will be great to have as well (do they have live updating?)

Yup! 🙂

One of the benefits of Spotlight is that it will be integrated right into the system and across the apps.

 

[jsw]

Spotlight is fantastic. As a Tiger beta user (official, not pirated), I can say that this is one of my absolute favorite new features. It's lightning fast already, and fantastically useful. I'd elaborate more, but I don't want to get sued for violating the terms of my agreement. 🙄 Let's just say it's wicked cool.

However, Tiger is - by most estimates - four months away. Is it worth less than a dollar a day to have a Mac now? If so, buy one. If not, wait for Tiger. Of course, then you'll hear of G5 PBs coming out "soon", so you'll wait for those. Then Lion will be announced, then....

Buy when it feels right. I bought the G5 dualie as soon as the local Store got one (September 2003) because it felt like the right time. I love it. I might get a PB soon because I like the new lineup/prices. If they do indeed announce higher-res screens, I'll order one that day. But I like them as they are now.

 

[Smileyguy]

Spotlight looked pretty cool when Steve Jobs demoed it at MacWorld. I'm also really looking forward to Dashboard. It should prove to be very useful.

 

[edesignuk]

It's something that I can live without, but it will be pretty cool/handy. One thing I like is that you can put say "1680" in the search field and all the images you have that are 1680px wide or high will be displayed, very handy indeed when you're looking for a new desktop to use. That's just one example, but one of the little things that will make it useful everyday.

 

[verozov]

i'm not sure how fast the google thing works, but from how fast Steve used it at the expo, it looks like speed will be another advantage to Spotlight...

 

[SteveC]

One thing I like is that you can put say "1680" in the search field and all the images you have that are 1680px wide or high will be displayed, very handy indeed when you're looking for a new desktop to use.

...or a new full resolution photo of Keira. 😀

On topic though... 😉 YES, Spotlight should prove to be awesome. I'm more excited about Tiger than any previous OS X release. That said, I still plan to buy an iMac the day they're updated, and buy Tiger when it's released, simply because I think Tiger is a ways off and I need a new Mac ASAP. 🙂

If you can wait, wait. (If you want to save some $ on Tiger.) If $ is no issue, don't wait. It might be a while.

 

[iindigo]

Spotlight is awesome - extremely fast and accurate. Definitely an AWP (Absolute Windows Pwnage) feature.

 

[jbrjake]

I want to get excited about Spotlight. I really do.

It's just, every time I try, I keep thinking about Sherlock from OS 8.5. And how Sherlock was supposed to revolutionize searching ("inside!") file content, indexing metadata to allow lightning-fast searches...

 

[PlaceofDis]

I want to get excited about Spotlight. I really do.

It's just, every time I try, I keep thinking about Sherlock from OS 8.5. And how Sherlock was supposed to revolutionize searching ("inside!") file content, indexing metadata to allow lightning-fast searches...

but spotlight actually does this! LOL, and i think smart folders will be awesome, because im guessing that i will be able to create say a smart folder for all my .doc files and have them automactically saved to a folder and find all of my word files that fast.