Web Forefront

And none other than Microsoft, just announced the release of WinFS (Windows File System), which looks like a powerful approach to this end. WinFS, besides being the next generation file system -- to supplant NTFS -- is also set to be a big part of Longhorn, today known as Vista. ( Related news WinFS rears its head again & Surprise! Microsoft Ships WinFS Beta 1 )

What is particularly interesting about WinFS is its ambitions to be a "platform", unlike many file system's which are just there to provide an underlying environment on which to install platforms.

Having a Desktop's data in a relational type structure, and with the ability to hook into it -- via an API or some other interface -- is with no doubt a powerful abstraction, one that does not imply the same lengthy and slow process of crawling, retrieving and indexing a set of documents that can vary in type from binary formats (PDF's, Word Processing Files, GIF's) to simple text.

It is obvious that Google has a stronghold on web search today, but organizing the web's data does not imply the same process as organizing a Desktop's data, it may be able to crawl its way on the Desktop today, but once a more efficient and natural means of classifying & organizing data is available on the desktop, through a bona-fide file system like WinFS the tides may change.

If Desktop Search will eventually become of grander importance than Web Search is yet to be seen, but one can only speculate the effect something like WinFS may have on accessing, sharing, and localizing data in the future.

Update: A very interesting post from the WinFS team: WinFS Update