I'm sure most blog-readers are now familiar with Lookout, the local search tool that integrates into Outlook (recently acquired by Microsoft). Lookout builds a local index of your Outlook mail store, and provides a search interface into that index. I've been using it for a few months, and find it exceptionally useful; it's fast (no more waiting for Outlook's native search), and accurate. My only gripes so far: 1) The lack of a hotkey to give the search box focus. I don't want to take my hands off the keyboard if I can avoid it. 2) When I empty my Deleted Items folder, I'll still get results from there until the next complete index occurs.

 

While scanning Battelle's search blog (see immediately prior post), I noticed this tool: Recall Toolbar, which operates on a similar concept -- building a local index of web pages you have viewed and providing a way to search it. I haven't installed this yet, so can't comment on it personally, but it sure seems like a great idea. If anybody out there (yes, you three ...) tries or has tried it, please let me know what you think.