When I mention the name "Watson," what immediately comes to mind?

The telephone?

Sherlock Holmes?

A new desktop search engine?

Well, the folks at Intellext are hoping it will be the latter as they introduce Watson 2.0 ($9.95 per month, $99.95 per year or $239.95 to purchase) and quickly form an alliance with Microsoft.

Believe it or not, there's a battle going on for space on your desktop and the two major players --- Google and Microsoft --- want you to give up a portion of it for their new search technology. Both are "free," if you can tolerate the advertising, and they both give you a lot of stuff you may not want --- doodle space, email links, access to photos, videos, etc. The big difference here is that Microsoft gives you the option of using Watson, offering it as an add-on.

Privacy is also a big concern here as both search engines deliver targeted ads to users based on their Web searches and information is still delivered to Google's servers in order for it to provide "personalized" information to your PC.

That's where Watson comes in. Although it's far from being free, Watson 2.0 isn't used to track any of your searches. Basically it works in conjunction with specific programs as you use them. Right now, these include: Microsoft Word 2000 or later, PowerPoint 2000 or later, Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher, Mozilla Firefox 1.04 and higher, Google Desktop Search, X1 Desktop Search, MSN Windows Desktop Search and Microsoft Outlook users who are using Word.

The technology is fairly simple, with Watson performing searches as you type and displaying the results in a "sidebar" (which takes up about a third of your screen). These searches are separated into various categories as it scans your PC, Web sites and blogs for additional information.

Other features include:

• It anticipates your needs, offering additional information on what you're typing with links to research reports, Web sites and blogs.
• The search changes as documents change or go through the various stages in the editing process.
• It will never initiate a search based on secure content unless you say it's OK.
• It tailors its search to specific areas being typed or edited, sensing what the user is focusing on and eliminating so-called "junk" from searches.
• Watson can be configured to deliver more relevant searches by using its "refine search" tool.
• You can tell Watson to search different sources by using the 'Info Sources" wizard.
• You can specify a Web site or domain for your searches.

For a 30-day free trial, check out www.intellext.com.

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