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Yahoo is expected to launch on Wednesday the first upgrade to its desktop search tool, adding the ability to index data from Yahoo's instant messenger archives stored on users' PCs and from users' address books residing on Yahoo's servers.

In its first version, the product could only index information found on users' hard drives, but now Yahoo has built a bridge between the tool and Yahoo's servers, says Bradley Horowitz, the company's director of media and desktop search.

Although the only Yahoo online data available now is the address book information, Yahoo will add links between the desktop search tool and other server-based data, such as Web mail, calendar, and photo album, he says.

Building a Bridge

Ultimately, the goal is to have the tool index a user's data whether it is stored on his PC hard drive or on Yahoo's servers, he says. "That's the direction in which we're moving," Horowitz says. "This is the first bridge between local and server-based content."

Yahoo, in Sunnyvale, California, hasn't decided yet whether it will enable the tool to tap into data stored on competitors' servers, such as Web mail services other than its own, Horowitz says.

In order to have the tool index data from Yahoo's servers, users have to activate a feature which asks for their Yahoo ID and password, he says.

The tool is still useful for those users who just want to index data stored on their PCs, he says. For example, Yahoo Messenger sessions are archived locally, and this new version of the tool can index that data.

Like other desktop search tools, the Yahoo product can index a plethora of other local information, including word processing and spreadsheet documents, downloaded e-mail messages, and images.

Yahoo Desktop Search, which is still in test, or beta, mode, can be downloaded for free.

Crowded Market

The Yahoo Desktop Search tool is based on technology from X1 Technologies, which sells a desktop search product tailored for business users, a market Yahoo isn't pursuing, Horowitz says.

Other players in the crowded desktop search space include Google, Microsoft, America Online, Blinkx, Lycos, and Copernic Technologies.

Desktop search tools in general are designed to help users find information stored on their local hard drives, although increasingly these products are reaching out into data stored beyond the PC's boundaries.