Method and apparatus providing omnibus view of online and offline content of various file types and sources

Data management equipment in an online service facility selectively accessed by multiple end-user computers, the online service facility including a plurality of online data centers operated by an online service provider (OSP) to store end-users' data objects relating to a variety of online services that the OSP renders to its end-users, the equipment comprising:

• a processor;
• a memory device;
• aggregated catalog means for storing information including:
• (1) metadata identifying end-users' data objects residing in the online data centers, and (2) metadata identifying end-users' data objects residing in respective end-user computers;
• aggregator means for:
• detecting new storage objects in the online data centers comprising newly arriving prescribed types of data objects owned by the end-users, wherein new storage objects are not yet shown in the metadata, and wherein the detecting operation is carried out by monitoring communications conducted between end-users and the online service facility in real time;
• communicating with the end-user computers to identify prescribed types of data objects newly stored in the end-user computers;
• updating the aggregated catalog to list to include metadata identifying the newly stored data objects contained in the online data centers and the newly stored data objects from the end-user computers;
• and
• finder means for, responsive to each request by an end-user, searching the aggregated catalog means and utilizing results of the search to provide an output for display at the requesting end-user's computer, the output comprising a consolidated listing of data objects of the end-user residing in the online data centers and data objects of the end-user residing in the end user's computer, wherein the consolidated listing includes an end-user-activatable VIEW feature;
• and
• wherein the operations further comprise, responsive to a given end-user's activation of the VIEW feature in conjunction with a particular one of the listed data objects, activating software to present contents of the particular data object to the given end-user.