Search Speed Question

[Narz]

So how come Google can search the entire Internets in .3 seconds but it takes stupid Windoze search dog 4 minutes to scan my computer's hard drive for some photo?

Thanks.

 

[Cutlass]

1 Google is searching 24/7 and making notes of the results.

2 Their hardware is just a bit better than yours.

 

[Zelig]

If you index your photos, it should be much faster.

 

[Synobun]

So how come Google can search the entire Internets in .3 seconds but it takes stupid Windoze search dog 4 minutes to scan my computer's hard drive for some photo?

Thanks.

The files on your computer are different than the indexed files on the internet.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

Google relies on their amazing search algorithm for a lot of the traffic for their ads. Microsoft could give two craps about how fast you can find stuff on your computer.

 

[Bratmon]

I dunno about Windows, but on my PC, locate is generally limited by the speed it can print to the console.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

locate uses a database so it's searches are much faster. Windows Vista and 7 also use some sort of indexing so they're relatively fast, but afaik, XP uses a plain old sequential search.

 

[Narz]

Microsoft could give two craps about how fast you can find stuff on your computer.

Damn them!

 

[warpus]

Yep, if you had your entire harddrive indexed it would be pretty fast.

 

[Bratmon]

Useful comment:
I believe you can turn on indexing on Windows XP somehow.
Edit: Hey look!
http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/09/18/turn-off-and-disable-search-indexing-service-in-windows-xp/

 

[Speedo]

locate uses a database so it's searches are much faster. Windows Vista and 7 also use some sort of indexing so they're relatively fast, but afaik, XP uses a plain old sequential search.

You can install Windows Search 4 on XP, it just has to be done manually through Windows/MS update.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Yeah google is searching all the web pages all the time and indexing them (I think it maintains a database of incidences of every 2 words appearing on every webpage).

That uses up a ton of storage space.