The Big Question: Sherlock vs. Dashboard

[TigerPRO]

I've been beginning to wonder if Dashboard is a move to replace Sherlock. Obviously, the functionality of Dashboard widgets almost entirely overlaps the functionality of the Sherlock Application. While Apple continues to add widgets and improve Dashboard, will they remove Sherlock from the final release of Mac OS X Tiger?

My personal preference is that the Applications are unique enough that it would be useful to continue maintaining them both. But my gut feeling says Apple won't be thinking the same way I am. With Dashboard Widgets, everything is a little more "gimmicky", if you know what I mean. While Widgets are designed to look cool and have all kinds of "eye candy" Sherlock has the edge when you are trying to be more information driven. Sherlock just has the ability to lay out the information in a more useful manner because it's a full blown application and not a little dinky blob of goo.

Does anyone have any incite on this matter? One indication might be if they are making improvements/changes to Sherlock in Tiger. If they are, that may be a sign it'll still be included.

 

[daveL]

Any response would be conjecture, at this point. I don't use Sherlock very much, but I expect I'll use Dashboard a lot more. The Sherlock version in the latest Tiger seed is version 3, same as in 10.3.7.

 

[3Memos]

Sherlock will be phased out eventually. Its development platform didnt quite catch on as I am sure Dashboard will be.

 

[altair]

Did you watch the movie of dashboard? looks pretty powerfull to me

 

[zooniverse]

I think they should have called "Spotlight" Sherlock because it has been a essencial part of the Mac OS from version 8.5.

Its just a shame to get rid of such a well known name and tool.

 

[mac-er]

I think Sherlock's days are numbered. I like how it has disappeared from being in the dock from the factory. And, it isn't mentioned anymore.

Dashboard is pretty much redundant now (translations, flight tracker, eBay, Yellow pages).

 

[Daveway]

I like sherlock, but if it isn't in the dock I won't use it. After Tiger Sherlock will be no more. I garontee>

 

[ravenvii]

I love the idea behind Sherlock. But still I never use it. I do see myself using Dashboard however. So phasing out Sherlock is a logical step, since seems they're not doing any developments on it anymore.

 

[MacFan26]

Sherlock is/was a great idea, but just never really seemed to turn out like it should have. Dashboard will be much faster to get at too, if I wanted to do some quick check on ebay or something, Sherlock is pretty slow to have to startup. Same for the other stuff like the dictionary. Besides, Dashboard has that neat ripple effect thing when you open a widget

 

[tersono]

Sherlock appears to be dying, I'm afraid.

Part of its functionality will gradually appear in Dashboard widgets, I'm sure, but I doubt that Sherlock itself will survive much longer. It appeared back when searching the web efficiently meant learning the syntax of various search engines, but things have moved on, rather, and I'm afraid Sherlock has been left behind.

 

[Jaffa Cake]

Part of its functionality will gradually appear in Dashboard widgets, I'm sure, but I doubt that Sherlock itself will survive much longer.

Plus, a chunk of Sherlock's functionality (ie, Flights, Phone Book) is pretty useless if you live outside of the States. Granted, there are third-party plug-ins available out there, but it would be refreshing if Dashboard were to give us international users a better range of options straight out of the box.

 

[Chimera]

I think Sherlock will be included in Tiger but in no more operating systems after that as the amount of widgets increases over time and Sherlock moves away from the limelight.

I'm actually glad this is happening as there were never many plug-ins for international users and with Dashboard's apparent ease of creating widgets there should hopefully be many for those outside of the US.

 

[wrldwzrd89]

I'm with everyone else - Apple will phase out Sherlock eventually, since it never really lived up to expectations, and the functionality it provides is being supplanted by better methods, such as Dashboard and newer web sites.

 

[applekid]

I always wondered what Dashboard and Spotlight meant for Sherlock. I really think they could've kept the name Sherlock for Spotlight, too. It's just searching, but now it's a faster search engine with some icing on the cake. I think Apple, MS, and Google seem to be putting too much on search engines, but once we get Tiger, that may prove me wrong.

Anyhow, the only reason I didn't like Sherlock was it required that extra app opened. Dashboard is quick, easy, and fun. However, the Sherlock interface felt proper for something like image searching or using one of the shopping plug-ins. I can't imagine using Dashboard for searching those kinds of things. You want a large window that only Sherlock or a web browser can provide.

I hope to see a Dashboard widget for TV schedules, package tracking, Amazon.com, and PriceGrabber.com. Those are the Watson/Sherlock plug-ins I still use and haven't read anything about a widget in development for. Those last two are going to be hard. Like I said, searching is going to be weird with widgets, but I hate using Safari for searching because those websites are loaded with junk. If Apple had a way of making Sherlock or Spotlight the way for searching any kind of website, that would be great.