QuickSilver may have that Google Buzz about it, but I prefer LaunchBar. LaunchBar feels like a part of OS X to me, QuickSilver feels like a definite addon. They both operate lightning fast, LaunchBar in my tests is far faster to update its indexes than QuickSilver. LaunchBar has a very extensive list of things it can do in addition to simply launching programs, however, QuickSilver does have an edge here with it's more extensible architecture. The fact that LaunchBar can't do everything out of the box that QuickSilver could potentially do doesn't bother me too much, LaunchBar does so much great stuff, if it did any more I'd probably start forgetting everything it is capable of.

Whether you are a fan of LaunchBar or QuickSilver you may have heard that during the WWDC Keynote Speech, it was announced that Spotlight is getting a major overhaul for Leopard, and one of it's new features will be the ability to launch programs much more efficiently. Without my seeing Leopard, my pure guess is that Spotlight will have a very effective and slick launcher feature. But I wonder about the other things that I use LaunchBar for, will Spotlight take on some of these tasks too?

I use LaunchBar for the following tasks:
● Launch Applications
● Fire up specific files and have them open in the appropriate application
● Launch websites from my Favorites
● Launch any URL (not from favorites, but free-form)
● Start an email to people in my address book
● Search Wikipedia, Google, Froogle Google, Buy.com, Amazon, MacUpdate and other sites,
● Dial phone numbers from my Address Book (needs Jon's Phone Tool for this)
● Look up contact info my my address book
● Navigate to a drive/folder on my computer
● Start an email and auto-attach a file to that email
● Spotlight searches via LaunchBar
● For control in iTunes

LaunchBar can do other things too, but this is how I use it.

It would be a terrible thing for the guys who bust their butt to make great software like LaunchBar and QuickSilver, but wouldn't it be better for the mass audience if something similar to them were integrated into the OS? I tend to think so, but I doubt the new Spotlight will be as full featured as either LaunchBar or QuickSilver. Time will tell.

You can discuss this topic here.
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