Shortly after its debut on August 1, x-dot (www.x-dot.de) announced on September 27 surprising new features of its freeware desktop search engine x-friend (www.x-friend.net). In the near future intelligent "robots" will deliver Internet information to every PC. Users will be able to receive up-to-date information in real-time from any information portal and display any information on an individual basis on their local PCs. The first "robots" will start crawling the web in 2004. A "normal" web search will be integrated in an x-friend version in October.
In 2005, x-dot plans to extend its peer-to-peer search implementation. That way, x-friend users will be able to search deeply for authorized information on other users' PCs and download the located documents and files immediately. Additionally, x-friend's local search enables users to search for additional document information such as author, date, etc. For example, additional information such as title, artist, album, etc. is very helpful with searching for MP3 music files. A picture search is integrated as well. Additionally, x-friend searches within external IMAP email accounts and RSS feeds. x-friend can be used for both desktop and server search.
