Google Desktop released!+review
 

Google inc. has done it again. Today they released Google Desktop which basicly is a way to index and google search your desktop. I was intrigued by this idea of searching files in this manner (inside files, chat logs, email, inside documents, etc.) which is much toughted by Microsoft as a killer features of their next OS, Windows Longhorn. Sadly Longhorn is still not out yet and the search features has been delayed untill after 2006.

Now seeing google's much anticipated release of their search tool, only for windows for now, I decided to try it out. I booted into windows (breaking my awesome linux uptime record) and downloaded this small (446kb) file. After running it installs a IE plugin and I let out a groan. I have been a loyal firefox user and I did not like the idea of switching to what I consider an inferior browser. When the installation finished a small icon appears in your taskbar and launches...firefox? It turns out that google desktop has a web-based interface at localhost. The application also runs a one time indexing program, that only runs when the computer idles. I wanted to change this to get this review of google desktop out faster but their seems to be a lack of advanced options in the program. After I watched resevoir dogs for the 3rd time I came back to an indexed system.

It seems to work very well overall. it can search by keyword, date, and user of AIM chats, the outlook only support was disappointing for e-mail but hopefully they will eventually add more clients. It was able to find files in both my local and network mounted partitions. Word document searching worked, but it crashed soon after that search. I have yet to be able to replicate this so I believe it was just a very odd bug I ran into.

Another feature I found, if the desktop google program is installed, google.com has an extra tab. A "desktop" tab. This is pretty cool...


Anyone else want to share their experience thus far?

And soon Google WILL RULE THE WORLD!! (insert deep evil laugh here.)

Every week its somthing new from those people, oh well, its all good.

The reviews look really sweet. According to the Google FAQ page for this, it runs in Firefox, but it doesn't index web pages that you visit in Firefox like it does with IE. But, it is a beta. Haven't installed it yet at work; I wish it could also index the network drives!

Tried to install it, but it seems like it's not compatible with my antivirus (NOD32). Too bad :\

Installed it, and was having problems with Opera. basically rendered google searching in Opera unpossible.
posted on Opera forum, apparently working fine for other opera users.

anyways...it annoyed me enough to give Firefox another try. :p

//edit - people on Opera forum are claiming it works great with Opera. bleh.

Amazing... Google is starting to make software.

Slashdot has a not so positive article on it. Spyware: based on it's complete indexing of the entire system without regard for permissioning. It isn't intended for a multi-user workstation.

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?s...id=217&tid=158

I don't know if that qualifies as spyware. Does it transmit any of the data? If not, it's just a low-security program. So use it on your personal boxes only.

Exactly. Not spyware, just not something to run in a secure environment. But then you shouldnt be running beta untested software from an untrusted vendor in a windows environment in a secure environment in the firstplace.

The couple of times Ive used it have been pretty nice, but I honestly havent had enough use to really review it. Seems pretty cool though.

Sounds interesting.. I'm still trying to get gmail to hold more than 10 meg attachments though--when that happens I'll move on to their next toy.

Cheese..gmail caps attachments at 10 megs for a reason. They don't want people to start e-mailing eachother albums :-P

It indexes IE history and Outlook/Outlook Express mail. Given that I use Firefox and Thunderbird, its usefulness is somewhat limited for me...

Man, I'm just waiting for the day that Google releases an Operating System. Woudn't that spell the end for MS? lol

Herk

Ok, I am going to bump this thread......

I just downloaded the non-BETA release, and to be honest, I am not very impressed. Is it just me, or is it not possible to search by partial filename? Ex: I want to find firefox.exe, so i type in "fox filetype:exe", and nothing comes up.