For purposes of comparison, many people are sizing up MSN"s new desktop search program and toolbar suite against Google"s previously released desktop search program. But a Macintosh convert, Eric Longstaff, points out the similarities between MSN"s new program and "Spotlight," the desktop search feature that Apple plans to incorporate into Tiger, the next version of the Mac OS X operating system. The MSN tool is "a ripoff," he writes.
Actually, it"s the other way around, insists one Windows-related publication. On the Windows SuperSite, in the intro to a glowing review of the new MSN software, Paul Thurrott asserts that Apple and Google were inspired to pursue their own desktop search strategies after seeing Bill Gates demonstrate the desktop search features the company was planning for Longhorn, the frequently delayed next version of Windows.