WebProNews

America Online is offering a beta version of their desktop search utility, which is powered by Copernic. This download is available to all AOL members. The AOL/Copernic partnership also indicates that desktop search has become another hot spot for search developers.

With Yahoo's announced partnership with X1 to also provide desktop search utilities and AOL's partnership many have commented on the outlook of the search engine off-shot. Andy Beal believes that AOL's offering was the wiser of the two. "While Yahoo has announced a deal with X1, AOL's pact with Copernic is a smarter move. X1 is processor-heavy and RAM intensive, which means that Yahoo will have to trim it down a lot, in order to make a free download feasible. Meanwhile, Copernic is more efficient and less draining."

Andy also believes the Copernic/AOL partnership makes this search utility a more attractive download. Both companies should have the full versions available in early 2005.

Chris Richardson is a search engine writer and editor for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest search news.