I’m getting some heat by Ross Jones in the comments for my post about the MSN Screensaver that it requires the MSN Toolbar to function.

Whilst I don’t want to rain on your parade isn’t putting functionality (search) on a screensaver fairly pointless? Do you tend to sit and try and use your computer when the screensaver is on? Personally the only time I ever see it is when I come back to my computer and press space to re-activate it.

And besides that ain’t a screensaver http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000807035571/ is a screensaver Just don’t ask how many lines of code were written to do this, you wouldn’t like the answer

Sorry, I didn’t realize MSN Toolbar to be installed as MSN Desktop Search is a key part of software arsenal. It passed my 7 Days of Software Rule easily. Google Desktop didn’t fare so well, it lasted on my sytem less than a day before it was uninstalled.

You see I don’t want to go to a webpage to search for my data on my local system and if I need an indexer on my local machine, it better be gentle enough to run on my Vaio laptop. Google failed me on both of those accounts.

What are some of the reasons I love MSN Desktop?

Well the wordwheel that gets built into the Windows Taskbar rocks! I can access search whenever I need it. It really has changed how I work with Outlook. Now it doesn’t matter anymore how I classify information in Outlook, no crazy Outlook folder heirarchy as MSN Desktop Search never lets me down in finding even the most obscure item from Outlook.

MSN Desktop Search Word Wheel

Once I get a result set out of desktop search (it is very fast) I get a Windows Client view (not a webpage) that I can quick move around and get previews of the documents I am looking at as opposed to the Google way of using a browser.

Also the indexer is very gentle, I am running it on my Sony Vaio laptop and no performance problems.

As for the question is search useful in a screensaver (Sorry I forgot to answer that in my first time around this post). For me its great to have search on a screensaver (especially now the MSN Search is giving me much better results ). You see I keep a laptop always open in my kitchen and by having it go to a sexy screensaver like MSN Search with news, weather and cool photos from is great improvement on my kitchen counter.  But its not jsut that, search is the most used application on this machine. We use it to find recipes, phone numbers and movie times. By having search on a screensaver, it saves me a step as it is now always there.

Anyhow, pick your software wisely and think about the Seven Day Rule. I feel that is a definite MSN Desktop Search is the winner over Google Desktop Search and heck you can even use a cool RSS Screensaver.