Review: Gaviri Universal Search OS - A Universal Remote Control For Data?

One of the more popular of desktop search software utilities is Google Desktop. However, Google Desktop has some limitations. It has been criticized for performance and security issues and is not very flexible when it comes to filtering search results.

SearchOS attempts to fill what's lacking in a lot of desktop search utilities. It is a portable search engine for desktop and mobile machines. It's searching capabilities extend to flash and external drives, smartphones, MP3 players, SD cards, SANs and more. Searching can be done all at once across a number of devices, Websites, and e-mail platforms.

SearchOS comes with a detailed management interface. The interface lists all detected devices. For testing, a 2 GB Cruzer USB flash drive was detected in addition to the hard drive. Newly detected devices are scanned by Gaviri's Universal Trusted search technology. With this feature, devices can be added as trusted ones, or ignored.

Devices are not the only searchable items listed in the UI. Network drives are searchable as well as Web sources and email clients. Email clients supported include Thunderbird, Outlook Express, Outlook and Eudora. Searches are done, not only in the inbox, but on .pst and .ost files too. By default, Web searches are set to search on the biggies like Facebook, MySpace and YouTube, but other sites can be added also. For example, a user could add their favorite blogs and search for keywords within the blogs.

The Web search capability is wonderfully convenient for searching through sites like blogs which often do not require any authentication methods for access. For sites that do, like Facebook and LinkedIn, a user still has to input a username and password on each site's login page. So, using SearchOS for this type of search adds another step. Why not just go direct to LinkedIn or Facebook to execute the search?

The vendor's response to this question -- single-point logon -- is on the roadmap. Gaviri's developers are looking at shared identity services like OpenID and Microsoft's Passport to incorporate that type of technology into SearchOS.

Reviewers looked to see if there was a way to search across databases. According to the vendor, the product will search through ODBC-compliant databases like Oracle and SQL, but there is currently no way to set this up through the interface -- that ability is forthcoming, per the vendor, perhaps in an Enterprise version (which would be appropriate.)

File searching is flexible and can be done by a keyword contained in the file, file name or file type. Boolean searches allow for customized searches. Directory searches are also supported, but the directory name has to be specified in the directory field -- a keyword search will look not bring up directories named with that particular keyword. Indexing of drives is done upon initial start-up of the program, and can be initiated manually at anytime via the interface.

There are still some really nice bonuses in the software. For example, file renaming, copy and moves can all be done within the Universal SearchOS console. With a simple click on a PDF icon at the bottom of the results review pane, files can be converted into PDF. With the feature Batch Rename, multiple files can be renamed at once. This is really useful for renaming those default alpha-numeric, non-descriptive filenames created by digital cameras for images. SearchOS comes with an integrated media player. The software is also capable of searching through archived/compressed files.

As a desktop search engine for home users and SOHO outfits, SearchOS is there. It has more robust searching capability then Google Desktop. For the SMB market, the product has great potential, but will have to integrate database searching and will have to test the product in virtualized environments (which the vendor says is underway.) The current ability to do extensive searches through files and email makes it a contender in the E-Discovery space, particularly for legal and compliance purposes.

SearchOS is available in two versions; Professional which is $39.95 and Network which is $49.95. The vendor will be revamping pricing for the SMB/SME markets. They will also be introducing an appliance. A Channel program is in the works -- to be released by November 2008.

Final say: Universal SearchOS for the SMB market is a work-in-progress and definitely worth keeping focus on.