Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: iPhone, OS3, Spotlight | Themes: Smartphones
iPhone OS 3.0 is here, but I’m not thrilled. That’s because Google spoiled me. Google always finds the cheesecake.
iPhone OS 3.0 arrived Wednesday—two days before we’ll get our hands on the new iPhone 3GS—but I had to install it on my iPhone 3G right away. You see, I’m addicted to search, and I’ve been looking forward to the promised feature of phone-wide search for a long time. Soon I’d be able to search through all my mail (both personal and work accounts).
On my computers (all of them, yes, even the Macs), one of the first things I install is Google Desktop. That’s because I know I’ll forget where I saved a document, who sent me that e-mail, or how to spell that guy’s name. Google Desktop, like Google, is an extension of my brain. We live in an age of information overload, so I can’t possibly remember all of the times, names, dates, and data bits in my personal and professional lives. Because Google Desktop (and Google) is so reliable, I’ve managed to get away with not deleting a single e-mail over the last five years. Gmail’s search function, and Google Desktop’s ability to search through Outlook better than Outlook itself, have turned me into an e-mail hoarder.
So, back to this iPhone software update. I quickly figured out that the Spotlight search box is accessed by either paging to the left from the home screen, or by tapping the home button slowly. So far so good. But when I entered my first query and got no results, I was majorly disappointed.
My first query was “Cheesecake.” I tried this search term because I know that somewhere, deep in my Gmail, is an e-mail message from my mother where she had pasted my favorite cheesecake recipe. I’m always looking for that recipe! No, I don’t bother to save it as a Word doc to my computer. That’s because I know it will always be there in Gmail if I simply search for “cheesecake.”
See? Here’s proof that I’ve got dozens of e-mails in Gmail that include the word “cheesecake.”
But Spotlight didn’t find any of these messages, especially not the one I was looking for. Why not? At first I thought perhaps iPhone Spotlight only searches the subjects of e-mails, rather than in the body of e-mails. So I did a test: I sent my self an e-mail with “cheesecake” in the subject, and one with “cheesecake” in the body but not the subject. Confirmed—the iPhone search couldn’t find the e-mail with “cheesecake” in the body, but it did find the e-mail with “cheesecake” in the subject. So, that explains why iPhone Spotlight didn’t find my dozens of cheesecake-related e-mails from Gmail. It is a major disappointment, but at least it is an explanation. Or so I thought.
But then I realized that the original cheesecake e-mail—the one I found via Gmail search that my mom sent back on December 7th, 2007—had the subject “cheesecake.” I was all out of excuses for Apple, but then I thought of something else: I had been searching only via the “phone-wide” search box. What if I went into my Gmail mailbox on my iPhone and tried to search again from there?
One problem: Where’s the search box? Here’s my inbox as I see it when I click on it. It
took me a good five minutes before I realized the search box is above the first message, but I had to scroll *up* to find it. That seems like a poor design choice. Trying to hide your disappointing e-mail search functionality from me, Apple? Ashamed of it?
After I typed “cheesecake” into the hiding search box, I got one result: the test email I had just sent, with “cheesecake” in the subject line. Predictably, this search box couldn’t search within e-mails, either, though it does claim to search From, To, and Subject fields when “all” is selected. However, a message that said “Continue Search on Server… 12,303 more messages on server” popped up. Great, I thought, maybe this is how I convince the phone to actually search all of Gmail for my cheesecake e-mails from a couple years ago. I clicked it, and it told me “Searching on server…”
Finally, results! iPhone Spotlight found four e-mails with “cheesecake” in the subject line. The fourth one down is the winner. Thanks Mom!
Apple—should I be thanking you? I don’t trust the Spotlight search like I trust my reliable Google Desktop or Gmail search tools. Start searching *inside* e-mails, and make the hunt for an email I know is sitting in my inbox into a fewer than five step process, and you might earn my devotion.
Now, I guess I’d better go check out the rest of the 3.0 features…
That's only because the mail app on the iPhone doesn't download all your past emails ever received. Its good that they include a "continue search on server" thing though.
That's only because the mail app on the iPhone doesn't download all your past emails ever received. Its good that they include a "continue search on server" thing though.
Yes, but they should automatically do the server search from the regular phone-wide search box...why the heck not?
Yes, but they should automatically do the server search from the regular phone-wide search box...why the heck not?
because they're Apple; they're cool like that!
I was excited about Spotlight search because it said it searches "notes" fields. In my Contacts, I will often put names or other items in my Contact's note field. So far, I've tried several tests to see if Spotlight search actually finds things here and it did not - at least not in my tests. I am finding it HARD to believe this update doesn't do that. ALSO, I had heard that the new OS would highlight telephone numbers in more areas (like a Notes area of a Contact field) but it does not appear to
( ... I'm hoping it is user error as I cannot believe this major issues weren't addressed??!!!!
Yes, but they should automatically do the server search from the regular phone-wide search box...why the heck not?
Because Rachel, it just works!
That's only because the mail app on the iPhone doesn't download all your past emails ever received. Its good that they include a "continue search on server" thing though.
In addition, only the headers of emails are downloaded. The body typically isn't downloaded until you open the email. Therefore, I don't think Spotlight will ever support searching the body of an email, not unless you switch to POP and download all 12,303 of those suckers to your phone (which I'm sure isn't even an option).
Would some iPhone users not have unlimited data accounts? If so they may get seriously overcharged because Spotlight is constantly requesting results from the server for every search. That would be a very rude awakening. Would be nice to turn this feature on or off though.
The other issue is that most search systems, including Google Desktop, needs to index your files. When you first install Google Desktop on your computer it can't find anything either. However, leave it on overnight and the next day you'll be set. I don't know if this is the same for the iPhone, and Internet email throws another wrench in the mix, but that could the the issue.
I do agree thought that it should automatically search the server.
Would some iPhone users not have unlimited data accounts? If so they may get seriously overcharged because Spotlight is constantly requesting results from the server for every search. That would be a very rude awakening. Would be nice to turn this feature on or off though.The other issue is that most search systems, including Google Desktop, needs to index your files. When you first install Google Desktop on your computer it can't find anything either. However, leave it on overnight and the next day you'll be set. I don't know if this is the same for the iPhone, and Internet email throws another wrench in the mix, but that could the the issue. I do agree thought that it should automatically search the server.
Matt,
Wishful thinking. All iPhone plans on AT&T have unlimited data. Also, I tried again this morning and the Spotlight search function did not grow magical indexing skills overnight
You could have simply organized your email into an abundance of subfolders in a shorter amount of time that it took you to write this article rather than complaining about an imperfect search feature on a phone. Some people really need to come back down to earth with a realistic expectation of what certain devices are intended to do. You want more search "power", then use one of your precious computers with google desktop.
You could have simply organized your email into an abundance of subfolders in a shorter amount of time that it took you to write this article rather than complaining about an imperfect search feature on a phone. Some people really need to come back down to earth with a realistic expectation of what certain devices are intended to do. You want more search "power", then use one of your precious computers with google desktop.
Hey man, it is my job to critique tech products, so call me a professional complainer. Now--tell me what you mean about Gmail subfolders...not sure I'm following you. You're saying if I somehow put my Gmail into an abundance of subfolders (which, by the way, I don't think you can do on Gmail--but definitely could in Outlook), somehow this will mean what to iPhone Spotlight phone-wide search?
Using Google Desktop is an interesting choice. I assume that means you use Windows XP. If you at some point choose to upgrade to Vista or more likely 7, you'll find that the integrated search is faster and smarter than Google Desktop, and when you use it you don't need to worry about your searches and data being sent to Google.
Its true that Spotlight on the iPhone could be better but it isn't a fair comparison to compare Spotlight on the iPhone versus Google Desktop on a desktop. The amount of resources available for each is vastly different... just look at the CPU/RAM on the iPhone versus whatever desktop you use.
Spotlight does exactly what it does in OSx the point of it is that it is instant. Making it search through all your online emails would make it have to connect to the network and take longer.
If you wanna understand how spotlight works and don't have a Mac then just check out a Vista's PC start menu search box since they did an ok imitation of it. They both do pretty much the same thing and the reason I call vista's an imitation is because it came second.
Or because i'm a fanboi!! wwooooo appples!! Only apple thing i own is an iphone and i have a hackintosh laptop. Other then that i have an xp laptop, vista media center, and a dual boot xp gaming machine with osx hackintosh. So if i'm a fanboi i guess i'm just really confused.
Spotlight on the iPhone is not worthy of the name. Besides the inability to find local content from a message body, searching Contacts will not turn up any data from fields like Notes or Job Title. Spotlight on the Mac handles all that. If you want to argue that an iPhone doesn't have the storage space or horsepower for the full-on indexing of the desktop Spotlight, look at it from a functional perspective: Palm OS contacts have been fully searchable since the ’90s, according to my cousin.
Fail.
I noticed that the mail searching only seems to able to find something if you know what the word starts with. For example, try searching your mail again just using "cake" or "heesecake"...
I for one agree with the writer. Search (in this context) has got nothing to do with powerful desktops, downloading all of your email etc. To prove my point how does gmail(the actual browser-based email application) find anything in seconds? It doesn't download all 10,000 emails to your desktop! Spotlight isn't that good for Gmail.
I actually just browsed to gmail.com on my iPhone in Safari and after logging in searched for cod5 and found very old emails within seconds - all presented beautifully on the iphone - AND THIS WAS THE MOBILE VERSION OF GMAIL. So why can't spotlight search all my mail too??
I couldn't remember my dentists name to schedule an appointment, so I searched for "dentist." as it happens, have two different dentists with "dentist" carefully spelled out in job title. BUT spotlight only found one of them--the wrong one. Later, when I remembered his name, I was surprised to see "dentist" perfectly spelled in his job title. So seriously, explain to me how spotlight can find one and not the other? These are in my contacts, not siting on a server.