Sherlock (software)

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Sherlock

Sherlock 3.6, Movies channel
Developer(s)	Apple Inc.
Final release	3.6.2 (179)
Operating system	Classic Mac OS 8 and 9, Mac OS X (prior to Leopard)
Type	File manager Search engine
Website	www.apple.com/lae/sherlock/

Sherlock, named after fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, was a file and web search tool created by Apple Inc. for the PowerPC-based "classic" Mac OS, introduced with Mac OS 8 as an extension of the Mac OS Finder's file searching capabilities. Like its predecessor (System 7.5’s revamped 'Find File' app, adapted by Bill Monk from his 'Find Pro' find program^[1]), Sherlock searched for local files and file contents on a Mac, using the same basic indexing code and search logic found in AppleSearch. Sherlock extended the system by enabling the user to search for items on the World Wide Web through a series of plug-ins, which employed existing web search engines. These plug-ins were written as plain text files, so that it was a simple task for a user to write a Sherlock plug-in.

Sherlock was replaced by Spotlight and Dashboard in Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, although Apple continued to include it with the default installation. Since most of the standard plug-ins for Sherlock provided by Apple itself no longer function, it was officially retired and removed in the release of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard in 2007.