Bambi, I love your ability to zero in on the amazing business models.

The growing market for organizing
Commentary: Tomorrow's content may be home grown
By Bambi Francisco, CBS.MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 12:44 AM ET Jan. 25, 2005

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- We thought Google's 8 billion crawled Web pages was a lot.

We haven't seen anything yet.

Our own content will likely dwarf what's currently being created by large media and the traditional providers of information.

The abundant flow of digital information on the Web is thanks in large part to all of us who are creating it, from the plethora of blogs, e-mail correspondence, instant messages, to the ever-increasing amount of digital music, photos and videos.

As everything becomes digital, the need to organize the information becomes even more urgent. That's why I believe that organizing our digital world is not a minor feature, as some have said about desktop searching. In fact, these features will be far more useful and addicting than we think.

If your desktop is anything like mine, you'll agree. According to Google's desktop search, I have 69,975 documents on my desktop. I'm a pack rat. But even if the average American has only a quarter of that, it still represents a huge number. There are 161 million Americans on the Web. Imagine how much data that is to organize. And we're adding to it every second.

For instance, people take roughly 2,000 digital photos a year, according to Picasa founder of Lars Perkins, who sold the company to Google (GOOG: news, chart, profile) where he is now general manager.

Digital camera sales topped 50 million in 2003, according to PMA Marketing Research. If you've been putting your photos online since then, you'd have roughly 4,000 photos to manage by today.

Yahoo (YHOO: news, chart, profile) on Tuesday is launching its video-clip search service in beta form on the Yahoo homepage, in part because of the overwhelming amount of video clips, including clips produced by small, independent producers, that are going onto the Web. Recall that in the wake of last month's tsunami disaster videos of the destructive waves drew millions of views.

(See previous Net sense: Tomorrow's Internet: "Searchable TV." Plus see my interview with Sean Morgan, founder of Critical Mention, a start-up that searches real-time television. See interview with Morgan.)

This overwhelming need to organize was made clear to me after a friend of mine said recently that he was organizing a panel for Harvard Business School to address how consumers will manage their growing libraries of personal content, such as music, videos, and messages.

Thus began my quest to find the best organizing tool out there, at least for now.

Yahoo desktop search

I've been testing desktop search tools from Google, Ask Jeeves (ASKJ: news, chart, profile) , Blinkx and Yahoo.

I'm more convinced that Yahoo has the best desktop search experience. Here's why. Yahoo's desktop search tool is conveniently right at the bottom of my computer where all of the application icons are displayed.

Any time I need to locate an e-mail or a Microsoft Word document, I go directly to that box. I get many, many e-mails, and I have many files and sub-files and sub-files of sub-files. Searching with this tool has been far more efficient that trying to remember the sub folder, or poking around in Microsoft Outlook. Sure, Microsoft (MSFT: news, chart, profile) Outlook has a search and categorizing feature and there are other ways to find the same document, but they're not as fast as just going to Yahoo's desktop search toolbar.

For anyone worried about privacy, Yahoo doesn't know what I'm searching for on my desktop. So, it doesn't support this service via advertising.

I have used Google's desktop search tool less. With that service I have to go out to the Web and it's an additional step that's inconvenient.

But for organizing my digital photos, I've found that Google's Picasa is one of the best software applications out there, so far.

Picasa picture organizer

Picasa just released its version 2.0 last week, and the new features include easy-to-use editing features, CD-and DVD-burning capabilities, and the integration with online services, such as Eastman Kodak's Ofoto, Snapfish.com, Wal-Mart.com, a division of Wal-Mart Stores (WMT: news, chart, profile) and Shutterfly. The integration with these Web services allows you to share your pictures with friends. That's a service that's been around for a while. The difference today is that you can touch up those pictures with far greater artistry than you could before. The CD-burning and CD-gift feature is also useful, because it's one less step in organizing my digital photos. Through a Tivo (TIVO: news, chart, profile) service, I can view those pictures on my television.

For anyone nervous that Google will know you better by the pictures you take, don't worry. Google's Picasa is software that sits on your desktop. Google doesn't even know how long you fiddle around with your pictures or how many pictures you keep on this desktop application. Therefore, this Picasa service, for anyone wondering, may not be an advertising-driven business.

"There is a strict privacy policy," said Perkins, who added that at the moment, he's focused on delivering a better mousetrap before figuring out how to make money off such a free utility.

But if Google's short history is any guide, it will find a way.