Does anyone consider OS-native search that queries your local computer AND the web to be useful?
As the default in ubuntu, it is actively confusing, and distracting. At least from my point of view, if I'm searching for something using my OS search, that means I want to find something ON MY computer. If I want to find something online, I will look online (google, etc.).
The workflow from OS -> OS Search -> Browser -> Search is often slower than Alt-tabbing to the browser that is already open, pressing Ctrl+T and typing your query.
This approach of combined search might make sense on mobile, where cloud storage is the norm, but on a personal computer, it is an insane default.
It may be confusing to people today. It will be expected behavior by the next generation. The real issue is what is "local" and what is "remote" is blurring. We see it with things like Google Docs, where they are "my" documents, and I want something like Spotlight to be able to search them, but they aren't local.
What we have today is two problems: First, we are in the middle of the transition. People are needing to learn new behaviors. That's always hard. Second, it isn't seamless yet. While I haven't tried it, I highly doubt my Google Docs would show up in the my Spotlight search. The fragmentation increases confusion.
I certainly maintain a distinction between the two, and definitely never want queries for local files to leave the machine as they can contain sensitive information. Apple mentions that the local results of queries won't be sent, but the query itself will.
Does anyone consider OS-native search that queries your local computer AND the web to be useful?
As the default in ubuntu, it is actively confusing, and distracting. At least from my point of view, if I'm searching for something using my OS search, that means I want to find something ON MY computer. If I want to find something online, I will look online (google, etc.).
The workflow from OS -> OS Search -> Browser -> Search is often slower than Alt-tabbing to the browser that is already open, pressing Ctrl+T and typing your query.
This approach of combined search might make sense on mobile, where cloud storage is the norm, but on a personal computer, it is an insane default.