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Forum Discussion
Dropbox Dash indexing/preparation and configuration
I'm experimenting with the Dropbox Dash beta. Its uncomfortably "blackbox" to me.
What I'd like to be able to do is see what data sources and folders its currently indexing or preparing with embeddings etc..
I'd also like to be able to be more fine grained in defining what data sources provide input data for Dash. Its too coarse grained to provide a go ahead for an entire Dropbox account. I'd like to be able to say "just these folders".
Is the Dropbox Dash team intending to provide these types of "visibility and control" features?
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There doesn't appear to be any configurability to provide guard rails to Dash for what content I want to be included in search and what shouldn't be.
On a per app basis, configurability is needed.
e.g. only index these Mail folders, these dropbox folders, only check these tabs, don't check these tabs etc.
I'd strongly prefer visibility into what Dash is doing in the background with my data sources.
i.e. what data sources, folders etc. are being "indexed".
What's currently being "indexed"? How far into the update task is it or which are fully up to date.
What interactions have occurred with third parties (e.g. Open API).
Its all to much of a "black box" with no visibility or "control knobs".
Weird, but doing a three word search comes up with meaningful matches for Dropbox files but appears to match on anything possible for Outlook search.
Is Dropbox Dash based on "traditional BM25" keyword based search, vector/neural search or a hybrid?
From a few simple tests, it appears to be keyword search which significantly reduces the value proposition even if it supplied AI on the tail end of the search results. Clear statements on search functionality and approach now and going forward would be welcome.
The UI paradigm for the Dash app seems to be much the same as the Dropbox app itself in that it "resides" in the system tray. I'd prefer instead that it had a task bar presence because it is more interactive. To me it makes sense that the Dropbox app is in the system tray as the majority of the time you don't need to interact with it directly. However the Dropbox Dash app requires more continual UI interaction so it seems more natural that it acts more like other higher interactivity apps - regardless of it performing background tasks as well.
- Hannah
Dropbox Community Moderator
Hey ApolonTorq, thanks for reaching out to our Community.
We appreciate you taking the time to post your feedback and your experience with Dropbox Dash.
I've made sure to pass your comments along to our team and if you need anything else, please let us know.
Have a great weekend!
