Google’s search engine is about to get a rock n’ roll upgrade – although only in the US at present. We’ve all spent too much time tracking down a particular track before – and not enough time listening -  but Google’s Music Search intends to change all that. Take a look at this video Google posted to see how it works…………

So far, so good. But you may have noticed a few things. Firstly, Google won’t be bringing you a “full search” and will only search through its partners catalogues – MySpace, LaLa, iLike, Pandora, imeem and Rhapsody. There is no mention of other popular music sites such as Spotify or Last FM and a heavy emphasis on purchasing.

This leads to another issue. You will only be able to hear your requested track once from start to finish, thereafter only 30-second clips will be available to you without buying.

Fair enough, we all have to make a living and this is actually a good tool to stop people having to download illegally – if it only takes one search to track down something you have been looking for over the space of months, then you’ll be happy to pay the 80-90p it costs to own it outright, and, legally.

But there is another music search service on the cards that you may not be aware of which, if it’s creators’ mission statement is anything to go by, will allow you to search for any track on the web. Playdar is an open source “music content resolver” and has been slowly picking up interest from big-hitting technology observers such as New Scientist and Wired.

As their website states; “Playdar is designed to solve one problem: given the name of a track, find me a way to listen to it right now”. Bold stuff, indeed, but Playdar aren’t messing around.

The concept is the design of a language that can talk to both your music player and any of the many music sites on the net, enabling you to instantly click on a button and here the track straight away and listen to what will potentially be the world’s biggest music collection.

The great thing about this is its open source nature. One can only speculate just how much money Google has invested into its Music Search, but whatever the amount, Playdar has the potential to blow it out of the water.

Activity on the Playdar site seems to be picking up speed, so keep your ears close to the ground – a release coming soon? Let’s hope so.

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