I've just tried today Copernic Desktop Search (CDS). I've been using Yahoo Desktop Search (YDS) for several months now and I'm very happy with it. It has some issues though like it's putting my laptop on its knees when it performs indexing, it has no Windows taskbar integration, etc. I wanted to see how CDS fared against YDS.

Here are my findings after one day of using CDS. Please note that this is definitely not long enough to have a definitive opinion on the topic but I thought I'd still share what I've learnt today.

General opinion

CDS is a very good desktop search. I was very impressed. It seemed perfect at first and then slowly I started finding some little flaws compared to YDS. Still it is extremely good. It has all the features you'll find in YDS and Google Desktop Search (GDS).

Pros of CDS vs YDS

• Integration with Windows taskbar
• Low resource for indexing. It is not slowing my laptop when indexing. That's very good!
• Immediate scanning of new resources. If you receive an email for example, it is immediatly available for searching. No need to wait for the next indexing.

Cons of CDS vs YDS

• No vertical layout for views (as there is in YDS). This means that you cannot fully the message being previewed
• No "All" categories search. You have to choose the category you wish to search (emails, files, contacts, etc)
• No as-you-type results
• No possibility to choose the columns to display (for exemple email folders or email size). There are only a few basic columns
• Slower to search and display items than YDS. It was very fast initially and it quickly became slow and very slow as indexed items increased
• XML preview is using IE engine on Windows and thus there are lots of XML files that don't display correctly

Some minor details:

• Delete key does not work to suppress an email
• Cannot select different emails (to suppress them for example)

Conclusion

If only it could have a better view layout and be faster to display results it would be perfect. Its killer features are really its CPU-friendly indexing for me and the immediate availability of new resources in searches.

I've just noticed that YDS has released verson 1.2beta yesterday and I'm installing it. For now, I'll still keep using YDS which is still my favorite. YMMV.