There are few applications available for the Mac that can be boasted of how it’s being used by NASA, and CDFinder is one of them. Actually, I haven’t heard of any other Mac apps being used by NASA… but at least we now know of this one. But straight to the point, CDFinder is a clever app that organizes and catalogs any disk information within your Mac (or out of) that’s sure to impress many of us.

Design. CDFinder has a very clean, yet attractive, interface that works out perfectly and actually boosts its productivity. Some may even look at it as a streamlined Finder window because of how easy it is to gain access to any file within it. But most importantly, some windows may pop up, yet the design is consistent throughout the application, which won’t disorient the user at any given point.

Functionality. CDFinder has a very powerful cataloguing feature that works with any kind of disks — even removable ones. But all the cataloguing would be useless if it didn’t have equally powerful organizing and searching features. Fortunately, it does. It’s capable of adding labels and building any kind of directory one could imagine. While it may not have Quick Look functionality built-in (yet), it is capable of displaying thumbnails of some pictures. Then, as far as the actual searching for files, this application could easily outperform Spotlight in terms of speed — although it integrates beautifully with it, just as well. Just type it, and in the blink of an eye, the results are in front of you. Those results include every bit of information one could think of — geotagging included.

Limitations. CDFinder is extremely powerful. It’s capable of handling millions of files (hard to test in a computer lab environment, though), and everything seems perfect. If there’s one limitation, it’d have to be that it doesn’t incorporate OS X’s latest features like Quick Look, but that could easily be added in a future version.

Final thoughts. No wonder a big name like NASA trusts its files to CDFinder, as beneath its simple interface lies an extremely powerful app capable of handling more files than you think you may have. But it’s obvious by now that the app is geared towards a more professional user, as regular users may be more than happy to have their handful of files indexed by Spotlight. Anyway, thanks to its impressive features, it’s a no-brainer to recommend to those professionals. A single license of CDFinder costs $39, and a demo is available for anyone to try out.