Lookeen is an

enterprise search Enterprise search is the practice of making content from multiple enterprise-type sources, such as databases and intranets, searchable to a defined audience. "Enterprise search" is used to describe the software of search information within an ente ...

and

desktop search Desktop search tools search within a user's own computer files as opposed to searching the Internet. These tools are designed to find information on the user's PC, including web browser history, e-mail archives, text documents, sound files, images ...

product released in 2008 by Axonic Informationssysteme GmbH.

History

Lookeen was developed in 2007 as an email search tool replacement for Lookout, which left the market when it was purchased by

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washin ...

. Lookeen enables users to search for files on their local drives, Microsoft Outlook and

Microsoft Exchange Server Microsoft Exchange Server is a mail server and calendaring server developed by Microsoft. It runs exclusively on Windows Server operating systems. The first version was called Exchange Server 4.0, to position it as the successor to the related ...

files, and any connected

network drive In computing, a file server (or fileserver) is a computer attached to a network that provides a location for shared disk access, i.e. storage of computer files (such as text, image, sound, video) that can be accessed by the workstations that are ab ...

s from standard or virtual desktops.
Lookeen won the

About.com Dotdash Meredith (formerly About.com) is an American digital media company based in New York City. The company publishes online articles and videos about various subjects across categories including health, home, food, finance, tech, beauty, ...

Reader's Choice award for Best Outlook Add-In in 2010 and 2011, and has been reviewed by PCMagazine,

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

Inc Magazine ''Inc.'' is an American business magazine founded in 1979 and based in New York City. The magazine publishes six issues per year, along with surrounding online and social media content. The magazine also produces several live and virtual events y ...

PCWorld ''PC World'' (stylized as PCWorld) is a global computer magazine published monthly by IDG. Since 2013, it has been an online only publication. It offers advice on various aspects of PCs and related items, the Internet, and other personal tech ...

, and Ghacks, among others Lookeen was also one of 29 productivity apps recommended in an article on

TechCrunch TechCrunch is an American online newspaper focusing on high tech and startup companies. It was founded in June 2005 by Archimedes Ventures, led by partners Michael Arrington and Keith Teare. In 2010, AOL acquired the company for approximately $ ...

in September 2015. Lookeen was also mentioned as a 3rd party search utility by ''The New York Times'' in December 2016.

How it works

Lookeen is built upon the

open source software Open-source software (OSS) is computer software that is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and distribute the software and its source code to anyone and for any purpose. Open ...

Lucene Apache Lucene is a free and open-source search engine software library, originally written in Java by Doug Cutting. It is supported by the Apache Software Foundation and is released under the Apache Software License. Lucene is widely used as ...

. The index framework builds an

inverted index In computer science, an inverted index (also referred to as a postings list, postings file, or inverted file) is a database index storing a mapping from content, such as words or numbers, to its locations in a table, or in a document or a set of d ...

to allow fast full text searches within indexed content. Lookeen uses Microsoft

add-in In computing, a plug-in (or plugin, add-in, addin, add-on, or addon) is a software component that adds a specific feature to an existing computer program. When a program supports plug-ins, it enables customization. A theme or skin is a preset ...

technology to integrate a search bar and ribbon into the

Outlook Outlook or The Outlook may refer to: Computing * Microsoft Outlook, an e-mail and personal information management software product from Microsoft * Outlook.com, a web mail service from Microsoft * Outlook on the web, a suite of web applications ...

client.

Development status

Axonic launched

capabilities in 2012 with Lookeen Server, a Microsoft server-based index which can deliver search results to multiple desktop clients. A free version, Lookeen Free, was released in 2015.

Competitors

* Copernic Desktop Search *

Docfetcher DocFetcher is a free and open source desktop search application. It runs on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux and is written in Java. The application has a graphical user interface, which is written using the Standard Widget Toolkits. The program i ...

Everything Everything, every-thing, or every thing is all that exists; the opposite of nothing, or its complement. It is the totality of things relevant to some subject matter. Without expressed or implied limits, it may refer to anything. The univers ...

* FileSeek * Locate32 * X1 Technologies *

Xobni Xobni ('' inbox'' spelled backwards; pronounced ) was a San Francisco-based company that made software applications and services including products for Microsoft Outlook and mobile devices. It was founded in March 2006 by Adam Smith and Matt Br ...

References

{{Reflist

External links