Many are Downloaded but Few are Adopted!

And it's not necessarily because the tools, utilities and assorted gadgets we download fail to measure up to expectations. Just as likely it's because, as inveterate download junkies, we try out new products as much to give ourselves a shot of adrenalin against the tedium of the daily grind as for any other reason. Even as we proceed to download, in many cases we know that we have no earthly reason to use the newbie, but we just can't resist the short respite from what we know we should be getting on with.

A recent example in my case was Google Apps, no doubt an eminently worthy product but quite alien to my situation. However, it makes a welcome change - like this blog, come to think of it - to the necessary but increasingly boring business of trying to earn a living by translating texts from French into English. Microsoft Virtual PC is another endlessly attractive but totally pointless (for me) snare! Fortunately for me, both these examples require a minimum of effort to install: very little in all conscience, but enough to scare me off! Indeed, it's a pretty good rule of thumb that if you are put off by the installation and set-up process you don't really need the download!

But let's suppose the tool or utility does seem to meet a need somewhere down the line: we download and install it, who knows we may even give it a fair trial! But when it comes to actually adopting it - well, it will either need to fill a genuine gap or be a lot better than the product it would potentially replace. In the battle between the lure of the new and the comfort of the old, old often wins out, even in the world of geekdom!

I am prompted to write these words after reading a post in Jonathan's Tool Bar & Grill, the truly excellent blog written by Jonathan Plutchok. Some time ago Jonathan wrote a glowing report on Copernic Desktop Search. I have long been a fan of Copernic and so can fully endorse everything he said. Why then do I prefer to use Google Desktop Search? Worse, why have I changed from Copernic to GDS, bearing in mind what I have just written about our innate conservatism?!

By most objective standards, Copernic is a far more attractive and powerful product. In addition to its beautifully clean interface, far superior to Google's cluttered offering, Copernic highlights your text in the preview pane. This is a big plus in my book. So I repeat my question, if Copernic is so wonderful, why don't I use it more often? I think the answer is of more than passing or anecdotal interest, and actually tells me (us?) something about the way I (we?) work on the computer.

The answer is bound up with a relatively little-known feature of Google Desktop Search called the Quick Search Box. This is how Google describes it:
"The Quick Search Box located in the centre of your desktop enables you to search the web and your local computer as quickly as possible (bold type and italics by me). You can simply press Ctrl twice to call up this search box at any time, and press Ctrl twice again to hide it. If you don’t want to use the Quick Search Box at all, you can disable it on the Google Desktop preferences page."
This rather mundane-sounding feature wasn't in the first version of GDS and it seems that it was added almost as an afterthought. Whatever the truth of that, the innocent-looking Quick Search Box turns out to be an absolute godsend.
First of all, the idea of pressing Ctrl twice to enable or disable the Box is, in my opinion, a stroke of genius. Even people like me who are incapable of memorising the simplest of shortcuts can handle this one!
Secondly, once invoked in this incredibly easy way, the Quick Search Box turns out to be your point of departure to get you anywhere you want on the web or on your computer:

• You can of course search your desktop for files and folders
• You can of course search the web via Google
  
• You can start up your programmes in the same easy and intuitive way as Launchy
• You can gain immediate access to a particular item in the Control Panel, e.g. "Display" or "Keyboard"
  
• etc.

I know, none of these functions are earth-shattering. But the point is that you can access them instantly and easily from the same "box" - the Quick Search Box.

And this brings me back to where I started. My original point was that we love downloading because it makes a welcome break to our work, but by the same token we are slow to adopt because this would involve an investment in time and effort that we are not often prepared to make.
What I am saying is that perhaps we should download fewer products but spend a little more time in finding out whether they are actually useful to us. Where the Quick Search Box is concerned, it is a case of the whole being better than its component parts.