RSSGoogle Enters Desktop Search Fight
By David Worthington | Published October 14, 2004, 10:36 PM
Just as the lines are being drawn in the impending search wars, Google has fired the first shot and today launched a bold assault on the competition. Google has unveiled a long awaited beta of its desktop search engine technology.
Called Google Desktop Search, the software enables users to find files that are stored on their own computers in the same way they would retrieve data from the Web. The beta release comes just one day after BetaNews first reported that America Online had assembled its own desktop search.
In an effort to entrench itself deep within the market early on, Google has taken its Internet prowess and applied it to the desktop - literally meaning that the same technology that powers Google.com powers Google Desktop Search. Google claims that its Web search engine can sift through billions of Web pages within a fraction of a second; so a single computer hard drive would be a task less daunting, producing even faster search results.
At the present time, the software is limited to finding common file types including Microsoft Office file extensions, plain text, chat logs as well as e-mails and AOL Instant Messenger chat logs. While those files may be stored locally, Google goes not make a distinction between that condition and the Web: Its software enables users to search both the Internet and their computer simultaneously.
That said, when users query the Web through either the Google Toolbar or the Google.com homepage Google Desktop Search runs in parallel and adds those results to the Google.com search results. Local searches are updated continuously throughout the course of a day for most file types to return the most relevant and timely results from a single starting point, on or offline.
"On the surface, Google’s desktop search utility appears to be about the desktop PC. It’s much bigger, because Google brings the desktop search capability into the same browser where people search the Web--and provides information simultaneously from both locales. Google essentially is blurring the informational divide between desktop and Web information, which is a smart approach that should concern Microsoft," wrote senior Jupiter Analyst Joe Wilcox.
Answering the privacy question, Google claims that the contents of a user's drive will not be exposed onto the Web without the user's permission. In addition, users can set preferences that assemble exclusion lists for files they do not want to have searched. The list of files is expected to grow as Google extends the software's reach into other file formats by offering developers an Application Programming Interface (API) to make their files more searchable.
Google is not alone in its hopes to merge the gap between the desktop and the Web. Recently, Microsoft previewed a prototype desktop search technology that was integrated into the MSN Toolbar add-on for Internet Explorer. As first reported by BetaNews, America Online is adding similar functionality to its AOL Browser product test bed.
Google Desktop Search is free and may be downloaded via FileForum . Requirements are: Microsoft Windows XP or Windows 2000 Service Pack 3, 128 MB of RAM and at least a 400MHz processor. The current release is only available in the English language.
Locate and Avafind are much more develop programs and Avafind has the scout service which keeps the index up to date all the time.
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|I'm seriously impressed with its performance. Being free and tied to Google, it beats the heck out of Copernic and X1 already. Microsoft has already lost this battle, and once Google unveils a new browser, Microsoft's influence will shrink a little more.
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|A cataloging tool,search on HTML, (Like Cathy see http://rvas.webzdarma.cz/) e-mail and beyon. Taking a giant leap to the next level.....this all in one will be a must have on all desktops sooner rather than later....Great Job...even if you are Google..(Smile)
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|I have no problems with finding my MP3-files locally. I just search, and click on the result and WinAmp pops up. Searching for music local have NEVER been so fast before. I simply love this tool.
Hopefully in a new version, it will include the option to search on removable storages such as USB-drives. And I guess it also will be possible to search in MSN Messenger logs as well.
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|I think what H8TEIRIS was trying to say is that you can't content-search MP3 files (or any media files, for that matter) - ID3 tags, etc. That would potentially be a useful add-on, kinda similar to the iTunes database, Winamp's Media Library etc, except running in the background all the time.
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|As a Network Administrator, it would be nice if Google would integrate network searches into the next version.
Also Google needs to incorporate Thunderbird email and Firefox history search capabilities.
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|Tiefel, that wouldn't be in Google's best interests - they have a box called the Google Search Appliance at http://www.google.com/appliance/ which does content searching and indexing across a whole network. They'd remove the market for that if the free desktop search tool could do it. I agree it would be nice though :)
Given the strength of the Mozilla/Firefox/etc community, I wouldn't be surprised if someone used the Google Desktop Search API to allow it to search those products within the next couple of weeks.
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|Its cool, but i would like it to find MP3's and i would love to know how to update it to fine new files and/or moved or renamed files..
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|Copernic Desktop Search is much better...give it a try.
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|Wow now google is going to be spying on my PC :)
Just joking.. its a cool tool. Best part it works when pc is idle unlike Microsoft stuff they kick in just when you are working on something important and CRASHES what you are doing :(..
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