A First Look At Apple's OS X El Capitan
by Ryan Smith on June 15, 2015 3:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Apple
- Mac
- Operating Systems
- macOS
Spotlight Gets Smarter: More Web & Natural Language Search
In Yosemite, Apple introduced the modern version of Spotlight, their combined local & web search tool. Replacing the previous drop-down iteration that was focused on local results, the rebuilt Spotlight became a pop-over window – practically a miniature application of its own – featuring not only improved local searching, but the ability to search and preview web sources as well.
For El Capitan, Apple is taking this a couple of steps further by giving Spotlight the ability to not just do keyword searches, but to better understand the context of searches and return results within Spotlight itself. Though Apple is not being overt about it, in a lot of ways the latest rendition of Spotlight is becoming increasingly Siri-like, as it gains a lot of Siri’s abilities to present data, and not just find it as was the case with Yosemite Spotlight.
On web side of matters – and by far the most Siri-like addition – Spotlight can now return and display results directly for the weather, stocks, sports, web videos, and integrate with Safari and Maps to include some of their search functionality as well. As it stands Spotlight can still only do a fraction of what Siri does, mostly due to the fact that it lacks Siri’s deep server-side analytic capabilities, but at the end of the day it’s in many ways a pared-down version of Siri for local use, capable of directly displaying results for some very common types of queries.
The single biggest difference here is really that Spotlight is just for searching, so it lacks any kind of command functionality. However I suspect that may be just a matter of time, especially as Microsoft is integrating their competing Cortana agent into Windows 10.
Moving on, the other major addition to Spotlight is the ability to understand natural language queries. Just as was the case in the OS’s included Mail application, Spotlight overall can execute natural language searches over documents, or over any application it is allowed to search in (e.g. Mail). As with Mail, the idea here is to make it easier to create queries, especially complex queries or queries for first time users, though all of the existing methods of searching remain unchanged.
As it stands I’m finding natural language searching a bit hit & miss. Some queries it handles well, while others it essentially fails to understand the query and falls back to web results. I suspect there’s a trick to this I haven’t quite picked up on when it comes to figuring out just what Spotlight can understand. Still, this is also a beta release and Spotlight is one of the few areas I’ve had issues with (requiring a system reboot at one point), so it may just be a case of needing to shake out the bugs.
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at80eighty - Monday, June 15, 2015 - link
Ryan[//b] I'm all for supporting AT through ads - but this page is somewhat unreadable from the left side - the seasonic ad is eating into the main article bordersat80eighty - Monday, June 15, 2015 - link
Oops I could have sworn I did the bold tag correctly :/ - we really need an option to delete comments, if not editRyan Smith - Tuesday, June 16, 2015 - link
Could you please email me with a screenshot and the browser you're using?ABR - Tuesday, June 16, 2015 - link
I know OS engineers warm their hearts by the idea of the Grand Unified Search interface where you do and find everything, but I really wish they would stop trying to actually do it. Look, when I'm trying to find a document or email on my computer, I don't want every page from the web showing up in my results. And if I'm interested in finding things on the web, good lord, I can click or command-tab my bloody browser open just as fast as open spotlight, and guess what, then I'm already ready to view the pages too!(Apologies for going off-topic here, I know we're only supposed to talk about the name..)
NEDM64 - Wednesday, June 17, 2015 - link
Then disable web results for spotlight.Oxford Guy - Wednesday, June 17, 2015 - link
Indexing everything makes it easier for the NSA and others to track you, profile you, etc.nils_ - Wednesday, June 17, 2015 - link
There is also a huge privacy concern when you look for some files on your drive and everything you type gets sent to Apple knows where.Oxford Guy - Thursday, June 18, 2015 - link
That's how all contemporary operating systems are designed. They sell it under "fast and convenient file search". In reality it's "faster, more convenient profiling".hp79 - Tuesday, June 16, 2015 - link
I really wish they get rid of the stupid boot chime, err, I mean the brilliant diagnostic chime.I also want them to fix Finder so that I can list folders first without using 3rd party apps like XtraFinder.
I've been generally happy with OSX since moving from Windows 2 years ago.
solipsism - Tuesday, June 16, 2015 - link
1) sudo nvram SystemAudioVolume=%802) http://www.howtogeek.com/67100/force-your-mac-to-p...