` #:752
`
`By Stephen Manes
`
`Needles and haystacks
`
`"trackers" you can retrieve with one click.
`THE IMPORTANT THING about a
`computer file is what's in it-the
`You can customize the list of results to show you a
`taste of each file's contents or omit these excerpts and
`content. But your computer
`.. refuses to surrender that content ..... fit more hits on the screen at once. You can sort the
`unless you specify precisely
`list by date, type of file, or estimated relevance; when
`where to find it. It's like a file
`you find what you're looking for, you can launch the
`clerk who does everything by
`associated application (say, spreadsheet or word
`rote.
`processor) simply by clicking on the name of the file or
`And it's absurd. Computers
`message.
`are superb at filtering and orga(cid:173)
`You can even view the contents of most files with(cid:173)
`nizing information. They should
`out opening them. Move the cursor through a list of
`do those jobs for us, not vice
`results in the left-hand pane, and the contents pop
`versa. A program called Lotus
`up at the right. Because the program understands E(cid:173)
`Magellan did them in DOS and
`mail messages and file attachments, the viewer can
`became an essential tool to a
`display suspicious attachments without officially
`handful of diehard addicts,
`opening them.
`including me. It died because
`Enfish can find and index Web pages of your choice.
`the rest of the world apparently
`It can link notes you create to particular files without
`couldn't figure out why anyone
`modifying them, a useful feature with graphics. Clever
`might want to type in "razor
`touches abound, including the ability to divine from
`clams" and see all one's corre(cid:173)
`E-mail headers that "Harry Houdini" is also "escap(cid:173)
`spondence, spreadsheets and
`er@straitjacket.com."
`invoices on the subject in seconds.
`But Enfish shows its Version 1.0 stripes. It can
`Times change. Today, using computers to perform
`search for whole words only, so it misses "misses" if
`just that kind of search through a vast realm of data(cid:173)
`you specify only "miss." It can index removable disks,
`the Web-is commonplace. Now three new programs
`hut forgets where they are when you remove them. It
`promise to extend the search engine's reach to your
`can cause odd colors to appear on
`personal information. First they index the data on
`the screen. And on my ancient
`your hard drive; after that, they can sift u~rough it
`Pentium 90 with 32 megabytes of
`in a flash.
`RAM, it crashed a lot. Stick to a
`Software like this frees you from
`more powerful machine: On a
`worrying about where to put
`266 megahertz AMD-K 6 unit
`things and how to retrieve them.
`with 64 megabytes of
`The computer becomes a file
`memory, it worked fine. A
`clerk with smarts. You keep old
`downloadable trial version
`E-mail rather than deleting it,
`is available at
`and your hard drive becomes
`www.enfish.com; the full
`the most valuable database
`version costs $80.
`you use.
`For $80 less, Alta Vista
`Best of the bunch is the
`Discovery brings much
`peculiarly named Enfish
`of the power of
`Tracker Pro. Aftertndex(cid:173)
`Compaq's estimable
`ing your hard drive, it
`search service to your
`suggests topics you're
`desktop. It offers more
`likely to hunt for in the
`flexible searches,
`future. Then it can help
`including the use of
`you develop queries of
`wild cards to sniff out
`your own ("Find results
`"pinniped" and
`with The Body Ventura
`"Pinocchio" from pin*.
`It can index or summa(cid:173)
`or wrestling that also
`contain Minnesota in the
`rize any Web page you
`last week but exclude Matt
`visit. It helps create com(cid:173)
`Drudge") and save them as
`plex Alta Vista searches that
`
`Stephen Manes, a computer industry journalist since 1983, is the coauthor of Gates, a biography of Microsoft's chairman.
`
`340
`
`Forbes 11 November 30, 1998
`
`Enfish, LLC; IPR2014-00574
`Exhibit 2221
`Page 1 of 1
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