The centerpiece of the planned offering is Windows Live Search, a desktop application that binds together several previously separate search tools. Expected to be released in beta-test form this summer, Windows Live Search will enable users to simultaneously search their PCs, their corporate intranets and the Web for information, according to Microsoft officials.

That would save a worker who wants to find information in his Outlook e-mail directory, corporate databases, and ERP or CRM applications from having to search them one by one, said Jon Beighle, general manager of Microsoft's online services group.

Windows Live Search will leverage intranet search capabilities built into Office SharePoint Server 2007, an upgrade of Microsoft's collaboration and workflow manager that's expected to be released in October along with the rest of Office 2007. The search tool will also use indexes of data created by SharePoint to speed up the process of returning results, Beighle said.

The indexing feature will make the tool much more nimble than Microsoft's existing Windows Desktop Search software, Beighle said, adding that Desktop Search can take minutes to search a large disk drive on a PC.

The upcoming technology is a big step forward for Micro-soft on search capabilities, said Mark Kruger, head SharePoint developer at Kaplan University in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.