Outsourcing full-text search

This might be a bit nutty, but anyhow ..

How about providing a means to call out to external text search facilities, and on getting the results back, having Zotero look to see if any of the returned items already exist in the Zotero database. If they do, list them. If they don't, offer to import them.

As an example, send a search out to Google desktop if it's installed. If the search hits include local pdfs, if they exist in the database as either local file links or attachments, show them, and if not, offer them up to be attached or linked.

The same could be done with external web pages searches via Google scholar (or whatever).

Just a thought. Cheers, CB.
  • edited January 21, 2014
    I am sorry this is so old (I happened here because I accidentally hit the last hit on a forum search) but, even now in 2014, I still use Google Desktop on Windows 7.

    You can download Google Desktop (which provides instant Google search for your computer) here

    [removed unofficial download link — D.S.]

    Google desktop creates an instantly searchable index of my computer including my Zotero database.

    Install Google Desktop, give it time to create the index, and then press Ctrl twice, and search your desktop instantly. I hear that Microsoft was meant to have provided similar functionality within windows since Windows Vista but I have never found the Windows search option to find as many in-file text hits as Google Desktop so I still use it.

    I have turned off the windows indexing search tool, so I am not sure how well it works. I never new the shortcutkey (the equivalent of Ctrl Ctrl) to get it appear either.

    And to related all this to Zotero - the zotero indexing and search functions can make downloading pdfs rather slow.

    So outsourcing to Google Desktop, as suggested above, is my solution.
Sign In or Register to comment.