The Synapse launcher was recently released, offering the following features:
- Search and open apps and items.
- Run any command.
- Directory search - allows opening of commonly used directories
- Gnome session - log out, shut down, restart
- Browse recent elements logged by Zeitgeist.
- Hybrid search - complete Zeitgeist results by searching for similar files
Will Unity's dash and search offer all these items?
Also, will Unity, using Places, be able to offer additional features such as this one, also from Synapse?
- Banshee - allows you to play/enqueue music files in Banshee
It's much too early for both projects to be able to answer this question.
However both use Zeitgeist heavily so you can probably guess in your head what can be possible.