We recently discovered a very useful tool that has been developed by two enthusiastic technology entrepreneurs.  Whilst we do not often recommend commercial products, we thought many of our readers may be interested in trying this utility out.

The product is called LOOKOUT, and is a lightening-fast search tool for use within Microsoft’s Outlook product.  It allows you to carry out complex searches for items within your email, contacts, tasks and other categories of information stored within your Outlook folders.

The product has gained such a good reputation that it has come to the notice of Microsoft, who recently announced that have bought the product and are planning to incorporate its technology into their own strategy for enhancing their method of searching for information.

The product is free, and is still available from download from:

http://www.lookoutsoft.com/Lookout/download.html

When the software is installed, it creates an additional toolbar within the Outlook window and hitting the SEARCH button produces a window where you enter the search term, which can be a single word or phrase, and the search results are displayed almost instantaneously.

The software can be configured to include searching of more than one set of Personal Folders, and Webmail folders that you have and the Archive folder(s).

Watch for the technology to be integrated by Microsoft within future versions of the Outlook product