Alfred vs. Apple's rip-off version (i.e. Spotlight)

[booyahbooyah]

Does Apple do anything right any more?

Those of you who use Alfred know how easy it makes it to find files in one's Mac.

So after complaining about Xiaomi and Samsung ripping them off, Apple faithfully rips-off Alfred -- i.e. the new Spotlight.

I was legitimately excited. Alfred is awesome. A second Alfred on my Mac would be even more awesome. Right?

So, today, after updating to Yosemite, I search for a simple text file on my Mac using Spotlight (after it finished indexing my Mac -- I know indexing was finished because Spotlight didn't say "indexing" when I opened it anymore). Well, Spotlight couldn't find it. It wasn't on my Mac obviously.

I look for it on Alfred, and it finds it instantly.

So, I go into Spotlight preferences. It's set up to index everything, including contacts etc. I uncheck a bunch of things that have their own search engine (e.g., contacts), and try to search for that missing text file again on Spotlight. This time it pops up instantly. A minute ago it wasn't on my Mac, and now Spotlight finds it.

Wow. Just wow.

 

[RichardC300]

I'm confused. So are you happy with the new Spotlight?

I'm still using Alfred. I like it.

 

[simon48]

Maybe it was still indexing even though they wasn't an indication of it.

 

[johnnnw]

Sad truth is Apple has been slowing ripping features off for years now. They make these features more user friendly, introduce them to the world and all of a sudden it's Apples idea

 

[Small White Car]

So, uhm...

http://support.alfredapp.com/kb:spotlight

I dunno what your problem was, OP, but it's not that Alfred found something Spotlight didn't. Alfred can only find things after Spotlight marks them.

 

[booyahbooyah]

I'm confused. So are you happy with the new Spotlight?

I'm still using Alfred. I like it.

I don't trust the new Spotlight.

I'm going to keep using Alfred first. And then try Spotlight as a backup.

----------

So, uhm...

http://support.alfredapp.com/kb:spotlight

I dunno what your problem was, OP, but it's not that Alfred found something Spotlight didn't. Alfred can only find things after Spotlight marks them.

Maybe so -- perhaps Spotlight had marked it but couldn't find it (when I searched for it on Spotlight). Which makes Spotlight sound even worse.

 

[yesjam]

The fact is that Apple has been "ripping" off third-party features for years now. The notification system on OS X is almost entirely a re-fabrication of Growl. But the problem is that the new spotlight's functionality is severely limited compared to Alfred and even compared to the "older" spotlight from 10.9. Results are instantaneous on 10.9's native spotlight, and I can search any term on whichever search engine I choose (the key factor in that being that I choose to use Google, not @#&ing Bing.) I cannot say the same for spotlight in 10.10.

 

[theSeb]

So, uhm...

http://support.alfredapp.com/kb:spotlight

I dunno what your problem was, OP, but it's not that Alfred found something Spotlight didn't. Alfred can only find things after Spotlight marks them.

I would never let small technical details like that get in the way of a good rant.

 

[Watabou]

Maybe so -- perhaps Spotlight had marked it but couldn't find it (when I searched for it on Spotlight). Which makes Spotlight sound even worse.

It doesn't -- Spotlight started to index in the background and by the time you opened Alfred, it had indexed the file. If you had used Spotlight after this time, Spotlight would have found the file.

Also, Alfred completely relies on Spotlight's engine.