The Mac Observer reports a patent Apple filed for in 2000 was granted earlier this week. The patent indicates that Spotlight development started long before Longhorn’s announcement:

Many had seen Spotlight as a quickly developed, me-too technology intended to compete with Microsoft’s long-delayed Longhorn update to Windows, but the patent application shows that Apple began working on the technology in January of 2000, years before Longhorn was announced.

BeOS used a similar metadata scheme, as part of its Be File System.

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