Desktop Search Engines

The advancements in desktop computing technologies and widespread use of digital devices have enabled users to generate and store tons of contents on their computers, which creates an information overload problem. Therefore, users need applications to search and retrieve required stored data instantly and accurately. This attracted the software industry to develop desktop search engines using ideas of web search engines. However, selecting an effective desktop search engine is difficult for users. In this chapter, the authors have analyzed and compared available desktop search engines using a set of parameters including users' privacy and security. A generalized architecture for desktop search engines is presented for improving understanding and unification of development efforts. The new emerging trends, supporting users' privacy and security, and several open issues and challenges in the desktop search engines domain are also highlighted. The authors hope that this chapter will be helpful for researchers to find new research problems and users to select appropriate desktop search engines.