As I store more and more data in different online applications, the need for a search engine that can search across them all becomes apparent.
I have photos on Flickr, blog posts here on my blog, bookmarks in Spurl.net, contribute to several project Wikis, have written articles for a number of diferent online publications, edit documents in Google Docs & Spreadsheets, enter data to DabbleDB and try to store most other documents in an online folder using WebDAV.
I’m convinced that online apps will replace most if not all desktop applications, but with all my data scattered all over the place, an obvious drawback is the lack of searchability.
Most of the applications mentioned above have RSS feeds, APIs or other relatively open and simple ways to get the data out. So how about one app to “search them all and forever bind them”?
Here’s how it would work: Type in a search phrase and get in return a list of results linking to the individual entries or items in their respective applications – displays thumbnails for extra credit.
Start with supporting the most common Web 2.0 services and make a way to easily add support for additional ones; ensure that I can keep my private data private and – voila – you have at least one paying customer.
Where do I sign up?
Found a service that’s almost there: http://www.lijit.com/
Didn’t work too great for me though – but it’s a step. Making a note to myself to check it out again in a couple of months.