Searching vs getting

I speculated a while age that the introduction of Spotlight in Tiger would eliminate the need for one of my favorite applications, Launchbar.

It turns out that I was wrong — they serve different purposes. When I know the name of what I want (be it a song, person’s phone number, or application), Launchbar is much more efficient (I think there is a use-frequency algorithm employed). Spotlight is more useful when I just know a tidbit of data I am looking for.

3 Comments on “Searching vs getting”

  1. #1 Dan Keldsen
    on May 5th, 2005 at 10:20 pm

    David:

    You might want to give QuickSilver a try – I find it much easier, flexible, and powerful than Launchbar. And of course, free – although not open-source (unless I’m mistaken).

    Go to:
    http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/

  2. #2 David Clark
    on May 6th, 2005 at 1:47 am

    Thanks for the suggestion, Dan. I have tried Quicksilver in the past, but I may look at it again given that it harnesses spotlight.

  3. #3 Dan Keldsen
    on May 9th, 2005 at 10:56 pm

    I had taken a quick look at it many months ago, and just didn’t get it – and I’m sure that while I still don’t fully use it to the utmost, there are some amazing shortcuts you can create within 2-4 keystrokes that would take many mouse clicks, commands and keystrokes to accomplish.

    Take a look at 43Folders for some hints on using QuickSilver:
    http://merlin.blogs.com/43folders/2004/09/quicksilver_app.html

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