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Tiger's Spotlight could supplant Mac Finder

updated 04:25 pm EDT, Thu June 9, 2005

Mac Finder withering?

Tiger's Spotlight search technology could be the , according industry experts. Spotlight along with the growing number of application with built-in file management functions could signal a shift in desktop computing--similar to "Google-shift" for online users. Wired News reports that "user-interface experts at one of the world's top design houses say Mac OS X Tiger is the beginning of the end for the Macintosh Finder -- the era of organizing files in nested folders is over." The article notes that the paradigm shift not really obvious because it offers the same search interface as previous generations of Mac OS X (e.g., Sherlock), but that "the quality, scope and presentation of the results are significantly better, so users get good benefits without having to change their behavior."

by MacNN Staff

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Horsepoo!!!
Banned

Joined: Jun 2003

0

06/09, 04:41pm | report spam | close Reply |
Holy c***...

This guy just rehashed everything I said about a year ago and put his name on it.

apple4ever
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jan 2001

0

06/09, 05:24pm | report spam | close Reply |
No way

No, no way. Spotlight is and never will be as efficient of a file manager as nested file structure.

JohnCoffee
Forum Regular

Joined: Sep 2001

0

06/09, 05:27pm | report spam | close Reply |
No way 2

Right . no way - at least as long as spotlight is that buggy....

cooner
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Sep 2003

0

06/09, 05:37pm | report spam | close Reply |
I sure hope not

I sure hope not. Spotlight and other search functions are handy enough when I'm looking for a file, but 99% of the time I just want to go where I know I put the file on my harddrive.

Maybe there's going to be a major paradigm shift, but I hope "Spotlight and only Spotlight" isn't it.

Horsepoo!!!
Banned

Joined: Jun 2003

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06/09, 06:25pm | report spam | close Reply |
Oh the Finder will stay..

...but it'll be 'just another app' like iTunes or iPhoto...but as a general purpose file organizer.

jhorvatic
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Joined: Apr 2005

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06/09, 07:05pm | report spam | close Reply |
Finder is not a search to

For one thing the finder is not a search tool. Finder is part of the operating system that basically is your desktop. Spotlight is a search engine and has nothing to do with the finder.

alyslinn
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Joined: Jun 2005

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06/09, 07:08pm | report spam | close Reply |
I'd miss the Finder

and I hope it stays.

mpbritt
Junior Member

Joined: Feb 2001

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06/09, 08:15pm | report spam | close Reply |
No Way 3

If I don't put my files in nested folders where in the world am I supposed to put them? That's just silly.

smoke-tetsu
Forum Regular

Joined: Jan 2003

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06/09, 09:09pm | report spam | close Reply |
File manager

I definetly don't think that spotlight will replace finder for two reasons.

The finder is the desktop.

The finder is used for file management. Sure we can find things easier with spotlight but what about when we want to move files around? This is something that spotlight doesn't do. Unless we are to stop caring about where our files go which I don't think I will ever do (stop caring).

Titanium Man
Forum Regular

Joined: Mar 2001

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06/09, 11:50pm | report spam | close Reply |
God, I hope not

I haven't gotten a single useful search result from Spotlight yet so I don't trust it. And what's Ratzlaff talking about? What "three column browser view"? Is he talking about column view? It's not limited to three columns. The Finder might not be as "elegant" as before, but it sure is a lot more powerful. I wouldn't give up file previews in column view, especially media files.

Jablabla
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Joined: Jan 2000

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06/10, 12:18am | report spam | close Reply |
gee whiz

Spotlight is great but give me a break buddy. All these articles trying to make the big moe ground breaking arguements.

Hmm, I suppose Spotlight and speech recognition is cool. Then we could get rid of the keyboard and mouse.

e2Sync
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Joined: Feb 2005

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06/10, 01:02am | report spam | close Reply |
Spotlight hardly works

Likewise, I have rarely got good results from Spotlight. I find it MUCH faster to sort through folders for things. I can create a file with XYZ in the file name, save it to the desktop, then do a spotlight search for XYZ and find the new file at the bottom of 500 files in Spotlight, with the 499 above it having nothing to do with XYZ. And this happens EVERY time I use it. Sorry, but it sucks. And WHY can't I right-click on a file to show it in the Finder!?!?!?!

Mosfet
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Joined: Jun 2005

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06/10, 08:18am | report spam | close Reply |
Dreams of a Simple User

This has to be one of the worst ideas I've ever heard. Spot light might be nice, but it will in no way replace finder. Its a supplement to finder.

How is one supposed to actually sort files without Finder. Are we supposed to use spotlight to manage files between multiple hard drives internal and external, removable media, and network stores? If I want to copy specific files to a certain temp folder on my ram drive before burning to optical media, how does spotlight help?

Spotlight might be all right for the person who has no organizational skills, expects everything to be done for them, and only uses their mac for iTunes and eMail.

Its like saying TextEdit will replace Word because of its simplicity, quick loading, and ease of use.

Double_UK
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Joined: Mar 2000

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06/10, 08:40am | report spam | close Reply |
Stupid idea

A lot of the times I forget the name of a file or an application but i DO know where it is located. How am I going to find it with (text-based) Spotlight? For one thing, I couldn't live without the column-view in the finder.

resuna
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Joined: Jan 2005

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06/10, 09:30am | report spam | close Reply |
You need both...

This is like the people who say that with google it doesn't matter how websites are organized any more.

Spotlight may find you the Cogswell account, but once you do you'll still want to be able to open the whole Cogswell folder in the Finder. And then pop up a level because you want to compare the figures on the Spacely Sprockets account... and, oh yeh, there's that new startup the Jetson kid's involved in...

birdman
Forum Regular

Joined: Jan 2000

0

06/10, 10:12am | report spam | close Reply |
ugh

Just because the Finder has the word "find" in it doesn't mean it's a search tool. It took me forever to get used to the concept of the home folder when I switched to OS X -- I wanted to keep my files organized just how I had them in OS 9, dagnabbit! I was so glad when Sherlock 3 came out and we finally had a simple, straightforward search function in the Finder again... but Tiger destroyed that. Now any time I press command-F in the Finder it takes over the front window for its searching, and it assumes that I only want to search for files in that specific folder unless I tell it otherwise. This, along with Spotlight, has to be the most unintuitive search functions I've ever seen... Sherlock was better than this c*** (but not by much).

gregarios
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jun 2005

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06/10, 11:57am | report spam | close Reply |
Ha!

The day we don't get a finder and can't do our OWN file management is the day I go to UNIX/LINUX and give up on Windows AND Mac.

MayaMastery
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: May 2005

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06/10, 12:01pm | report spam | close Reply |
WHAT AN IDIOT

the idoot who says the era of organizing files in nested folders is over is completely idiotic. NOTHING will replace good file organization and the user knowing where their stuff is. its one thing to use a search like spotlight when you cnat find something, but its another when you dont know where anything is and you are typing up searches for 25 minutes trying to find 35 different files with all different metadata, names, and filetypes(media dvds etc) also, if there is no file structure like nexted files, then who decides where the files go when you put them on the HD? this person is a crack

Deal
Mac Enthusiast

Joined: Apr 2001

0

06/10, 12:54pm | report spam | close Reply |
Yep

I have yet to find a great search that I would like to save.

Even if I did, where would I save it? ... to the finder, that's where.

ApeInTheShell
Senior User

Joined: Nov 2002

0

06/10, 02:18pm | report spam | close Reply |
It stopped raining

e2sync....Just ctrl-click on the picture, file, or folder in Spotlight and choose reveal finder in the dialog. Alternately, you can double click on it to open in a window or application. The Finder is an application wheras Spotlight is a system wide search tool. There is no way to create smart folders in Spotlight except when you use the Finder. I like the previews in Spotlight because I don't have to change views constantly but the Finder is not going away anytime soon. There will be many more 'features' to turn the Finder into a better organizational tool in the future.

e2Sync
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Feb 2005

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06/11, 03:07am | report spam | close Reply |
There is no Ctr-Click

You can not control click on items in the menu-based spotlight window list.

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Tiger's Spotlight could supplant Mac Finder

updated 04:25 pm EDT, Thu June 9, 2005

Mac Finder withering?

Holy c***...

No way

No way 2

I sure hope not

Oh the Finder will stay..

Finder is not a search to

I'd miss the Finder

No Way 3

File manager

God, I hope not

gee whiz

Spotlight hardly works

Dreams of a Simple User

Stupid idea

You need both...

ugh

Ha!

WHAT AN IDIOT

Yep

It stopped raining

There is no Ctr-Click

Login Here

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Tiger's Spotlight could supplant Mac Finder

updated 04:25 pm EDT, Thu June 9, 2005

Mac Finder withering?

Related Articles

Recent Articles

Holy c***...

No way

No way 2

I sure hope not

Oh the Finder will stay..

Finder is not a search to

I'd miss the Finder

No Way 3

File manager

God, I hope not

gee whiz

Spotlight hardly works

Dreams of a Simple User

Stupid idea

You need both...

ugh

Ha!

WHAT AN IDIOT

Yep

It stopped raining

There is no Ctr-Click

Login Here

Register for our weekly email newsletter:

Connect tools:

Subscribe

to our RSS

Follow us

on Twitter

10 Most Read

10 Most Discussed

MacNN Marketplace