Hatrack River Forum: Google Desktop

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Posted by Chris Bridges (Member # 1138) on :

Google unveiled their new desktop search application today. Basically it indexes your computer -- takes 5 or 6 hours, depending on what you've got -- and find all your text files, spreadsheets, e-mail, etc. From then on you can use the app to search your computer the same way you use Google.

Or, next time you go to Google and do a search, you'll see your own desktop searches at the top of the results page.

First impression: this is seriously cool. Lightning fast searches, familiar google-style interface. Privacy issues not a problem if you have the minimal security everyone should have anyway. Slight problem if you google something in front of other people, since your own PC results will show up first. But, damn, this is fast.

Posted by ludosti (Member # 1772) on :

Also a problem if you use non-Microsoft products, as they aren't compatible.... [Wink]

Posted by Bokonon (Member # 480) on :

Y'know, Netscape was on it's way to attempting thism back in the day, and we know how they turned out.

-Bok

Posted by Chris Bridges (Member # 1138) on :

From the sound of the many articles that have sprung up about this today, other companies and platforms will probably be following along shortly.

Posted by Mike (Member # 55) on :

Am I being old-fashioned in believing that local searches should be kept separate from web searches? One of the nice things about web browsers is that they allow access to essentially arbitrary content from elsewhere without compromising local security. Or at least that's how they're supposed to work. [Wink]

I don't want to access a web page on a remote server (google.com in this case) that can display information about my local data. I realize that Google is not uploading any of your data, and this is implemented with some sort of plugin, but it still makes me leery.

There are ways of getting data from local to remote and vice versa, but they should be understandable and controllable, since this is precisely where security breaches occur. A search like this blurs the conceptual line between local and remote (or maybe it's the line between "my data" and "everyone else's data"), so I'd expect to see malicious exploits of this popping up at some point.

On the other hand, having a Google-style local search tool would be really useful.

Posted by Jutsa Notha Name (Member # 4485) on :

Is there a way to force it to not show desktop results when you do a web search? I'd much rather have the two separated from each other fully.

Posted by Chris Bridges (Member # 1138) on :

The web server does not access your data. The application on your hard drive inserts it into the page. If you were to click on your desktop results, you would see that the address in the location bar of your browser reflects a location on your hard drive, not online. It looks integrated, but no one (including you) could access your data from a different location.

And yes, you can elect to hide desktop searches from regular google searches.

Posted by Hobbes (Member # 433) on :

I'm finding it very effective, as I would expect any Google based search engine to be. The thing that bugs me is that the search doesn't let you open the containing folder, or tell you, as far as I can see, where the containing folder is. I use this way more than I just open the file itself. [Grumble]

Hobbes

Posted by Hobbes (Member # 433) on :

Actually, Google claims that is shows the full path name, but it isn't for me. I'm trying to clear out my web cache, so it's html pages and I'm not seeing any full path... [Grumble]

Hobbes

Posted by Hobbes (Member # 433) on :

And for the question about suspresion, right click on the icon on the lower right of your taskbar and go to preferences. You can turn it off from there.

Hobbes [Smile]

Posted by James Tiberius Kirk (Member # 2832) on :

Once again, Google = Win.

--j_k

Posted by Corwin (Member # 5705) on :

Hmm... I'm too lazy to actually look for the answer: how does it do the update of your files?! Is there a background task that keep updating when you create a file or a directory?!

As for searching on my computer - when I have one - I usually... don't! [Big Grin]

I always have a nice directory structure with everything I need in its place and it's added to the system path so the only thing I need to do is type the name of the file and voila! I'm also a geek... [Dont Know]