Ventura Spotlight searches images

If you've upgraded to Ventura, check out the new Spotlight. Now you can search images by content. I can't swear to it, but it seems a bit improved over the search IN Photos. But in any case, it's certainly convenient. And even kind of fun when it misses. Like I was searching for "frog" and it found "snake." Reminded me of my seventh grade science students who confused amphibians with reptiles...although Spotlight is MUCH better behaved than they were.

robgendreau said:

If you've upgraded to Ventura, check out the new Spotlight. Now you can search images by content. I can't swear to it, but it seems a bit improved over the search IN Photos. But in any case, it's certainly convenient. And even kind of fun when it misses. Like I was searching for "frog" and it found "snake." Reminded me of my seventh grade science students who confused amphibians with reptiles...although Spotlight is MUCH better behaved than they were.

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Thanks, that seems like a practical improvement.

I read several Ventura reviews, even the overly long one from Ars Technica, but didn't see anything ultra compelling that I must have now.

With Monterey update from Big Sur, I could delete Karabiner because MacOS was finally(!) able to remap the Command key to Fn.

I'd like to see improvements to Launchpad, which is bothering me enough that I probably need an alternative. I'd like Launchpad to start on the second page where applications that I've installed are located.

CAcreeks said:

robgendreau said:

If you've upgraded to Ventura, check out the new Spotlight. Now you can search images by content. I can't swear to it, but it seems a bit improved over the search IN Photos. But in any case, it's certainly convenient. And even kind of fun when it misses. Like I was searching for "frog" and it found "snake." Reminded me of my seventh grade science students who confused amphibians with reptiles...although Spotlight is MUCH better behaved than they were.

Click to expand...

Thanks, that seems like a practical improvement.

I read several Ventura reviews, even the overly long one from Ars Technica, but didn't see anything ultra compelling that I must have now.

With Monterey update from Big Sur, I could delete Karabiner because MacOS was finally(!) able to remap the Command key to Fn.

I'd like to see improvements to Launchpad, which is bothering me enough that I probably need an alternative. I'd like Launchpad to start on the second page where applications that I've installed are located.

Click to expand...

Yes, Ventura is rather unspectacular. Some of us consider that to be a feature, not a bug. I like all the continuity features since I work with the iPhone and iPad a lot with the Mac, so worth it for me for that. Seems a lot of the other improvements are in individual applications like Mail, Messages, and Spotlight.

I've never used Launchbar myself. I use the keyboard to launch programs 99.9% of the time, and I don't think it does that. I'm not sure there is an alternative to it if one uses a mouse and icons to launch; back in the day I think it was DragThing that we used.

If you use the keyboard enough to futz with Karabiner I would think Alfred or Launchbar would be a better alternative than Launchpad, but YMMV.

robgendreau said:

I've never used Launchbar myself. I use the keyboard to launch programs 99.9% of the time, and I don't think it does that. I'm not sure there is an alternative to it if one uses a mouse and icons to launch; back in the day I think it was DragThing that we used.

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Do you mean you use the keyboard to type an application name into Spotlight?

robgendreau said:

If you use the keyboard enough to futz with Karabiner I would think Alfred or Launchbar would be a better alternative than Launchpad, but YMMV.

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Thanks, I'll check out Alfred and Launchbar.

Another suggestion was to put Finder > Applications into an icon on the taskbar dock, and then all applications would be listed in alphabetic order. That could work, but right-clicking Launchpad does a similar thing.

I would like Launchpad fine if it always started on page 2.

Two things about that Photos search with Spotlight: It only works with the System Library and It only works if the library is in the default location.

Launchbar is the first thing I install on a new Mac. I've tried Alfred but the inability to set an interval before it forgets a query beats me every time. Launchpad is cute.