Where did you post that thought? Did you save it in Evernote, or in Google Drive? Maybe it’s in your Dropbox. Perhaps it’s on your blog, or maybe you tweeted it. Hmmm. Where is it?
Wouldn’t it be nice to have one site where you can search through everything you have? A unified search through:
- your notes on Evernote
- your files on Google Drive
- your files on Dropbox
- your sent and received email
- your bookmarks on Delicious.com
- your tweets
- your Instagram photos
- your Flickr photos
- your Facebook posts
- your Amazon reviews
- your Yelp reviews
- your Tumblr posts
- your Pinterest pins
- your Spotify playlists
- your iTunes playlists
- your Netflix queue
- your Netflix history
- your blog posts
- your Google search history
The idea is one place to search through all your own stuff. This could become the next Google (in terms of search).
This search could also include things that you took action on:
- your Instagram likes
- your Flickr favs
- your Facebook likes
- your fav’ed tweets
Looking for a particular recipe? Search through all your online services to find the recipes you’ve pinned, blogged, mentioned on Facebook, saved in Evernote.
Perhaps a topic you were interested in a few years ago has come up in conversation with someone. Let’s say it’s about Paris. Pull up all the references you’ve made to Paris–all in one place.
Maybe you’re at an art museum and a painting really stands out to you. The artist’s name seems familiar to you, but you can’t quite put your finger on it. Did you come across this artist’s work before? Search all your online services to find out!
This ultimate search is like your own personal Google for your digital life. This service could become the next Google. Google made its name through indexing all the webpages online. And now since everyone posts so much information online in various places, this search needs to get focused on your own things.
UPDATE: I tweeted this desire for an über personal search engine. @tonykhue responded with a link to Found, an application that enables you to search across your Evernote, Google Drive, gmail, Mac files, and Dropbox.
Keep found on your radar, Found might get big.
Dropbox, Evernote, and my Mac files work great with the Found app. However, Google Drive and gmail just get a continual progress bar.
How does Found deal with the fact many of these cloud searches will require access to password-protected accounts?
The found app asks for your username and password for these services.
Does it store them or do you have to re-enter username and password every time?
The app most likely uses OAuth and thus never “stores” your password nor asks for it every time (unless you invalidate the token)
Unfortunately, I don’t think it uses OAuth. When authorizing gmail and the other services, it directly asked me for my password. It didn’t send me over to gmail to authorize the app.
CloudMagic Search was once upon a time another solution for the “search all the things” tool. Now, it’s become an email app.
I can see huge potential in Found. It makes perfect sense. Just think…you can consolidate search parameters to access and search multiple aps.Damn! Why didn’t I think of that?
I’m hoping that Found expands to other services (like the ones listed in this post). Thanks for the comment!