Young Users No Longer Know How to File and Navigate

> According to my memory, good desktop search is available at least since 2002 or so. I vividly remember starting to use the great Copernic Desktop Search for Windows. Therefore, I would not say that the availability of desktop search is a major reason why young people do not use files and folders any more.

Yes, but when did it become mainstream on the operating systems people use? I think hitting the start key and typing became a search thing on Windows with Windows 7?

Like the author, I would suspect a greater influence from browser search engines, though. It's because devices are supposed to bring you information (including your own files I suppose) and the organization of that information is very much out of your own hands (from the user's subconscious perspective). A related phenomenon is that people do not curate collections of files and programs they know will be there, but collections of apps and links into the cloud (that may change or disappear at any time).

The main problem I find is that the desktop search on windows and Mac is still trash. Type something like, say, “donation receipt” and it still comes back with 30 gobbledygook cache files before the receipt pdf you are actually looking for.