Sherlock

Sherlock, named after Sherlock Holmes, is part of the Mac OS system software. It appeared on all Macs as of Mac OS 8.5.

What made Sherlock very different from the previous Find File was that it could search the contents of documents (but which also required an indexing of all documents or a selection of documents).

Under the Classic Mac OS (Mac OS 8.5 - Mac OS 9.2.2) as well as version of Mac OS X before Mac OS X 10.2, Sherlock was both an Internet search engine, as well as an application which was responsible for file-finding.

As of Mac OS X 10.2, Sherlock became responsible for Web content and was replaced by Spotlight for desktop searches in Mac OS X 10.4.

Sherlock in Mac OS 8.5
Sherlock was first released as part of Mac OS 8.5 as a third tab of the Find File application. The third tab named "Search Internet" was where the power of Sherlock was unleashed.

It had only one channel and no additional channels within (unlike Sherlock 2), although you could search from a multitude of different web sites.

Sherlock 2
Sherlock 2 debuted with Mac OS 9 and represented a great leap forward for Sherlock. Now "a thing of its own", it kept the Find File portion for the files on the hard drive and other drives, while taking a life into its own. Multiple channels were introduced, and a huge influx of new search sites were preinstalled.

With Mac OS 9.1, an Entertainment channel also made its way into Sherlock 2.

Sherlock 2 continued to exist even in a Mac OS X version before the next update. The original Sherlock 2 was transformed into the Aqua "look" (typical of Mac OS X), and Find File remained a part of Sherlock 2 for Mac OS X until it was replaced by Sherlock 3 in Mac OS X 10.2.

Saved searches and preset searches were also special features which existed in Sherlock 2.

Sherlock 3

 * Main article: Sherlock 3

Sherlock 3 debuted with Mac OS X 10.2 and became a web-services application. The Find File option remained in the Finder until it was replaced by Spotlight in Mac OS X 10.4.

The new Sherlock offered not only new channels, but also web services -- such as maps, flight information, and the extremely useful translations option. Sherlock 3 is very similar to a previous Mac OS X program called Watson.

Sherlock plugins
Sherlock search technology saw a relatively rapid adoption, with web sites rushing to churn out Sherlock plugins which could be installed on your computer.