X1 has released the biggest upgrade of its desktop search tool in four years, adding the ability to query SharePoint sites and tap webmail accounts.
The upgrade, called X1 Search 8, also runs in virtualized thin clients, a first for the product, according to the company. X1 also redesigned the product's user interface and sharpened its indexing engine to make it faster.
X1 Search 8 lets users search through their desktop files, preview more than 500 file types in their native formats and take actions right from its interface, such as opening a file, editing a document or sending an email.
The tool costs US$49.95 per license, with an annual support fee of $19.95. The company offers volume discounts to organizations that buy 500 or more units.
X1 also has an enterprise search server called X1 Rapid Discovery that's a separate but companion product to the desktop search tool.
Tools such as X1 Search 8 and Coveo's Copernic should be considered primarily by organizations where employees are having a hard time finding their own data and files in their client devices and individual data stores, said Leslie Owens, a Forrester Research analyst.
Otherwise, it's more common for enterprises to go with server-side enterprise search products such as Google's Search Appliance and HP's Autonomy product, which are designed to index corporate data and make it available across the organization, with access control and security constraints tuned for each file.
"Enterprise search's value proposition is letting you find things you didn't know existed from a variety of corporate repositories, while tools like X1 Search address the problem of finding your email messages and documents," she said.
Juan Carlos Perez covers enterprise communication/collaboration suites, operating systems, browsers and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Juan on Twitter at @JuanCPerezIDG.