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Google Launches Desktop Search Tool
hanky writes "Google brings search to your very desktop with Google Desktop, a mini Google index of your own. Search your filesystem, Outlook or Outlook Express inbox, AIM instant message transcripts, and Internet Explorer cache. There's a full introduction to the Google Desktop over at the O'Reilly Network. It's Windows-only, but still cool enough for this Mac guy to find it intriguing."
Being able to google my machine would be the best thing this side of perpetual motion.
Having to start doing everything with AIM, IE, Outlook and MS-Office would be the worst thing this side of the universal solvent.
Why, oh why, did they have to specifically aim this at all the apps I don't use?
Reality has a conservative bias: it conserves mass, energy, momentum...
So far in my testing, it has performed better than MS's own indexing service which comes with Windows.
[alk]
Doesn't work with Mozilla, or Opera, or Pegasus mail, or Eudora..... Guess I'll wait for something less MS centric.
Three Squirrels
I wonder how similar this is to the new "Spotlight" feature to be included in Apple's OS 10.4 "Tiger".
With the first link, the chain is forged.
finding all my stashed pr0n has never been easier!
Wasn't Microsoft supposed to solve the Desktop Search problem with their upcoming Longhorn?
Put something on the PC that lets the old lady find my pr0n easier? Yeah right.
This works fantastic. I'm impressed with the speed, and accuracy of the searches.
Already two Mac people in my office are fairly jealous, because this is what they thought Sherlock would be- but wasn't.
I don't think this will make anyone change platforms, but on the other hand, it will keep a few people on Windows- until it is ported over somewhere else.
No reason to lie.
google getting inside your pants.
M$ to WinFS!
HaHa.
...and give Google head. They'll start delivering targeted advertising based on your HDD's content, and you'll bend over and ask for more.
Your blind faith in Google is misplaced.
Thanks to me being a slashdot subscriber ive now had this for 6 mins and can offer a 6 minute review.
GOOGLE DESKTOP HAS CHANGED MY LIFE!!!
i achived in the past 5 minutes more than the previous 3 weeks. It found my car keys (they were under the pile of oreily books)!!!
Official GOD FAQ.
Too bad I am at work but if this is as fast as a web search and I can actually find what I am looking for then this is truly a godsend. The index search in windows is way too slow and the search in Outlook doesn't bring up what I am looking for usually.
It can be downloaded here: http://www.copernic.com/en/products/desktop-search /index.html
Some not so free ones are X1 Search and dtSearch.
Well not to thrilled about the IE only. Be nice if it would search Mozilla stuff as well.
Does anyone know if it'll search Outlook/Exchange mail?
i installed it, and then it was like: "this will take a few hours to index" and I bailed on it. does it really take that long from what people are seeing? I'd love to use it for searching my outlook mail, but hate the idea of the overhead.
Google-like engine? Awesome!
These apps? Oh, damn you, guys! If you don't want to make support for Thunderbird or other alternatives to M$ apps, at least give it some API capability for people to use it with their favourite applications.
If you make it plugin-enabled, I'm in! But not unless.
Do you forget Spotlight technology in Tiger which does this too and is integrated into the OS?
forget it.
I wonder if it's better than the award winning X1?
Just got it today, strange coincidence.
Will be interesting to compare them, and I recommend Windows users to check out X1 too. If you can bear with it updating its index the first time you run it (will take a few hours for it to index your files, but will run in the background), you might find it useful.
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
Now my wife could easily find out if I've been downloading porn.
Great intention, bad Idea.
The sad thing about the Google Desktop is that, for the moment at least, it only supports things like the official AOL Instant Messenger software, Internet Explorer, and Outlook/Outlook Express.
And I thought Google was supposed to be this big challenger to Microsoft???
It would be nice to see support for Trillian and other IM clients in addition to Firefox/Thunderbird. I'm hopeful that this will come to fruition, I really can't see how it wouldn't. I can understand the strategy of releasing for these apps though, because of course every computer with Windows preinstalled likely has them.
-JT
Yahoo's coverage says: "Microsoft Corp., which is working on a similar file-searching tool that it recently said would not be ready for the next version of its Windows operating system promised for 2006."
So it looks like the new MS search functionality won't even make it into Longhorn? I don't see why it's so difficult... I mean if Google could accomplish it, without intimate knowledge of the OS, Office/Outlook/etc file formats, and such, why can't MS do it 5 times faster? I'm confused.
Visit the Game Programming Wiki!
It's Windows-only
First Search: security hole
Come on Google, PowerPC users are a significant share of your audience.
BLING BLING. Meet the architecture that's changing everything.
http://www.wingrep.com/
I combine this with XPDF.org's PDF to text converter.
"God fights on the side with the best artillery." - Napoleon, Marshal of France - speaking truth to power
Is if I could search my desktop information, and my gmail, with one search.
Google seems to be expanding in leaps and bounds. They're sinking their tendrils far and wide....
/. are obliged to hate them on principle?
How long until we here at
Seriously. Locate, which, whereis, find, grep are all great tools, but this would be simply awesome to have.
There's a Starman, waiting in the sky / He'd like to come and meet us, but he hasn't got the time.
Uh, just hit F3, Windows people. You can search IRC,AIM,ICQ,MSN,etc logs. Chances are Outlook (which I never use) has its own search that's just as good. Only difference appears to be now I can search with a Google-branded software that does what I can already do. Fad.
thehomeland(.org)
I'm surprised to see Google restricting themselves to such a small set of files. It seems to me that indexing OOo files would be easy, given that they're XML. I'd think that other mailbox formats would be available and probably easier to work with than outlook.
Somewhat disappointed.
It maybe that they'll add to that list quickly. Let's hope so.
--Coming up with something clever... please wait...
It helped me find a girlfriend! Thank you Google Desktop Search!
If my answers frighten you, stop asking scary questions.
The product is still in beta, and on the About Google Desktop page, they say:
:)
"Google Desktop Search is still under development as a beta product. We intend to add new file, email, and chat formats and browsers as Google Desktop Search evolves, and when new formats are created and used. If there's a format you'd like Google Desktop Search to be able to search, please let us know. We can't guarantee that we'll add every type that's suggested, but your suggestions will let us know what formats are important to you."
I'm going to go suggest a couple right now, and get in on the ground floor
Visit the Game Programming Wiki!
I'll just stick with grep.
Gosh - give me something like this for Linux, and I'll kiss some serious feet.
I've been looking for something for YEARS to replace the "Excite for Web Servers" (EWS) which could easily be cadjoled into indexing your own (Linux) computer when combined with a local copy of Apache.
It was downright AWESOME, but is no longer maintained, was based on an ANCIENT version of Perl, I've been unable to get it to work on anything beyond RedHat 6.2, and rights are not available anywhere that I've found.
My home directory is 12 GB in size, and contains work going back 6 years. Making all this searchable would just be the cat's meow...
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
Linux users can try out Nat Friedman's Beagle, which does something like what Google's desktop does. The Dashboard project uses it to find information pertinent to your current desktop task and displays it in a sidebar. Pretty neat. It's one of the C#/Mono projects that's available for Linux.
"Backups are for wimps. Real men upload their data to an FTP site and have everyone else mirror it." -- Linus Torvalds
They own gdesktop.com http://www.directnic.com/whois/index.php?query=gde sktop.com Why not use it?
What's next? The Google operating system? Are we looking at the beginnings of a next-generation Microsoft-like empire?
Woah! It needs a gig of free space to install? What the hell?
My email addy? should be easy enough.
"Non-personal" information doesn't exclude much. Who's to say what information Google is collecting about your PC?
Where is that Slashdot skepticism? It's well past time that Google stops getting a free pass here. This needs to be highlited.
There's a Mercedes gap too. I want one and can't afford one, but it's not government's job to do anything about it.
I wish it would search PDFs. I have a lot of free books, data sheets, manuals, etc. all collected over the years in a nice hierarchy of directories but it is always hard to find something that I usually try Google first before searching my collection. If it can instantly find stuff in my PDF it would help me a lot.
froml
http://desktop.google.com/privacypolicy.htm
How we use unique application numbers, cookies and related information.
Your copy of Google Desktop Search includes a unique application number. When you install Google Desktop Search, this number and a message indicating whether the installation succeeded is sent back to Google so that we can make the software work better. Additionally, when Google Desktop Search automatically checks to see if a new version is available, the current version number and the unique application number are sent to Google. If you choose to send us non-personal information about your use of Google Desktop Search, the unique application number with this non-personal information also helps us understand how you use Google Desktop Search so that we can make it work better. The unique application number is required for Google Desktop Search to work and cannot be disabled.
thanks but ill stick with the built in search for now
GooGle is GOD
Did anyone else misread that as "...any other files you are lying about..." Had me scared for a second there. Uh, not that I have files that are private or anything.
Stand clear of the doors. The doors are now closing.
reverse engineering, anyone ? :)
Our intelligent designer has never created an animal that we couldn't improve by strapping a bomb to it.
Here is a thorough review.
Opera Watch - An Opera browser blog.
Don't figure I will need this on Mac, since Spotlight http://www.apple.com/macosx/tiger/spotlight.html/ will pretty much serve a similiar purpose.
From what I gathered from the CNN article, this will work with any browser, however it will only index the text of webpages visited with Internet Explorer. This is just a beta test, but some non-Microsoft application support would be nice including:
* Firefox
* PDF
* GMail (with your supplied login and password, kind of like the gmail tasktray notifier)
* MP3 ID3 tags
* Image metadata
Until support for at least Firefox gets included I think I will stay away.
http://almostsmart.com
For those of you that don't know, take a look: http://lookoutsoft.com/Lookout/
Microsoft bought this company which beat Google to the punch on desktop searching. Kinda funny that the letters on the main logo look very Googlish...
Of course, what would be really nice is if new formats were supported via plugins, and if google would distribute a simple API so the open source community could contribute new plugins rather than waiting for google to implement them.
Slashdot's first reaction to VMware
Being able to download the technology powering the Google search engine must be the dream of every competing search engine. Maybe this will even result in a free software version which may replace 'locate' and 'htdig' on linux.
DNA is the ultimate spaghetti code.
That's the second or third non-Linux supported innovation by Google recently. There was that Picasso picture search tool, and some other, I seem to remember. Are they shunning the Linux community? :(
Get your own free personal location tracker
Take a look at the files and programs it indexes at http://desktop.google.com:
;)
Outlook / Outlook Express
Word
Excel
PowerPoint
Internet Explorer
AOL Instant Messenger
Text
It's all MS software only except for AIM and text files.
I'm relieved that I'll finally know exactly where all my text files are.
"Lawyers are for sucks."
- Doug McKenzie
Isn't the best part of Google the way it uses the number of links to a specific website to help rate the supposed value of that specific page?
I don't link between my own documents on my computer, so that is out the window.
Of course, I do have the MS Search, so I am going to give it a try.
I use NOD32 as my antivirus, which is flagged as "incompatible" by the installation program. Apparently other AV pgms are also in that list, some with circumventions, others, like NOD32, not circumventable. I'm pretty sure I won't be installing this even if they figure out a way around it. I trust and need my AV more than I need another background service chewing up processor time.
.nosig
Google Desktop requires admin rights. Makes sense, but it means that I can't check it out at the moment on my work computer.
Hopefully they'll have plans to do something similar for linux, GAIM, etc so I can try it out on my home computer.
Search for your *thang*?
I mean no real offence, it was just too much to pass up!
emt 377 emt 4
"Search your filesystem, Outlook or Outlook Express inbox,"
Why the hell do you want to search in a virus-full folder ?
Ploum.net.
It doesn't seem to like Netlimiter. It won't install. Too bad. I won't uninstall Netlimiter just because Google's Search Tool doesn't like it.
If I remember correctly Altavista put out something like this in their golden years? Let's not hope Google won't go down the drain (I hate hitting "google farms", and I do that too often). Focus Google.. I'm sure Clusty and AllTheWeb would like a share of the market, and if you don't fix your primary service (your beloved search engine) - you'll probably fade away.
So my sig plug is still relevant ;-)
Great intention, bad Idea.
I could not justify my existence if I were a turkey farmer. Would I terminate myself? Undoubtably, yes.
Google search and ranking in my pc!??! How will all of the PIGEONS fit in there?!!?
?SYNTAX ERROR IN LINE 42
Am a Mac+Linux user, but would have been gr8 if they came out with atleast a Linux version (seeing googledesktop.sourceforge.net in near future...??? )
Im allready running XP Pro on a 700mhz machine with only 192MB of RAM. This seems like a great idea, but I assume it will be a recource hog.
Will not hate them as long as they continue to not be evil.
I have long thought that a company could do "good" and do "well". I am glad to see them do both successfull ( AFAIK, anyway... )
emt 377 emt 4
I don't know what they are, but the install complained that I didn't have them enabled, and that I couldn't use it unless they were. I hit cancel.
I've shut off and/or disabled everything I could in IE, and never use it. Can somebody explain what IE Add-Ons are? Sounds dangerous.
- Kevin
The less confident you are, the more serious you have to act.
...to see the MS-centric applications covered in this first (beta) release. But has anyone tested this on OO.org yet? XML being a text file and all that... but maybe the zipped structure will be a problem.
You know what I miss? Leeches.
Another one bites the dust
I would use it if it were customizeable, i.e.: you could make it work with any application, and define your own rules for that application. As it stands now, I don't use AIM, MS Office, Outlook Express, or Internet Explorer - anything from that list.
Also, I'm wondering if it will display googleads on the desktop. I don't mind the occasional ads in Gmail, but HELL NO, I won't have anything even remotely resembling ads on my desktop!
I'm a little concerned about this gmail desktop search. In Googles quest to find any information at anytime there has been a lot of uprise about GMAIL and the fact that they will possibly share your personel email information with governments and other third parties after it reaches a certain age. I'm interested that by having this search tool installed Google could then potentialy have access to your files. Does anyone have any further information about this as noone seems to know the exact story..
It does work with Opera (7.54), although it will give you a warning on top of the page.
And you can tweak Opera's search.ini file, so e.g. typing "d foo" in your adress bar or open dialog will search all things foo on your harddisk.
So this is not "Google Desktop for IE", but for HTML files - and everything else you may want to search for.
odd, it wants to close firefox but doesn't search firefox?
For searching within files on Windows I'm a fan of the free Agent Ransack.
now if only it would allow me to link it to a gmail account to include that mail as well as the outlook stuff.
Now they can give us targeted ads based on our filenames! I mean, why not? They already do it based on your gmail. It's only a matter of time. Very clever, google.
http://www.gmail-is-too-creepy.com/
First, just agreeing with all the other posts that the applications it uses by default have to be some of the absolute worst.
Second, how are they going to make money off of this?
Third, they are starting to look really evil. They are leveraging their *near* search monopoly to do things that others couldn't possibly do.
I remember the beginning of Microsoft. I used to love their products and recommend them over others (such as Macs). *It was only at the exact moment that I realized I was being "locked-in" that I started hating the fuckers*.
Even more than an OS, a search engine database should be open and accessible to all. Sure, they're not going to make it convenient when their resources (in their perspective) are better allocated doing things that will increase their own revenue. Still, what happens when they start adopting awful privacy policies? What happens when they start adding dumb features that you hate, but you can't do anything about it because the initial advantages were so great that you decided to adopt it, not realizing it was a one-way Chinese finger trap and there was no way out.
Where in God's name is all the source code to any of their stuff? How about GMAIL? Why don't they give out that source code? It's not like it would really hurt them to have other people running their own copy, while providing the ability to tap into some of google's centralized API's for things.
If MS wants to get a leg up, they need to return to the days of doing what they did best *at first*. Give people more control. Give me my own personal server where I can do those types of things free from the intrusion of some big mainframe-era-thinking company, and provide huge opportunities for ME to create my own new services and business off of that stack.
Google sucks. MS sucks.
MS is big. Really really really big. Gigantic. This means that often things are not going to be moving all that fast but worse still it allows for a real danger off management explosion. 10 progammers need 1 manager. 100 programmers need 10 manager and a manager to manage the managers. 10.000 programmers need 100 managers plus 10 managers of managers and 1 to manage all them and so on right?
WRONG. It is more like 100 programmers need about 10 technical officers, 10 project leaders, 5 project supervisors, a human resource staff, marketing, etc etc etc. To lazy to type it all out but I been in situations where software development had me the programmer reporting to well over a dozen managers all who had their own agenda. So I spend less time programming then doing meetings.
Worse a really good programmer who just spends his time developing will be quickly out of the loop and unable to find an audience for his ideas.
MS probably has several teams who could easily do this. They are just lost somewhere in the management jungle.
Why not find them? Well why should they? Management is doing okay, windows keeps selling the bonusses keep coming in. Why should management go after those creepy skilled programmers when they can deal with nicely suited once who speak their language and deliver the next point upgrade not to much past the deadline?
Lets be honest (ms apologists cover your ears) MS has never been an inovative company at the leading edge. For crying out loud, it started as a unix company after every one else already had done unix and then turned it into dos.
it added a gui only after only everyone else had done one and stole the design. it only got a somewhat 32bit OS by stealing it from IBM and the final irony (someone else pointed this out to me recently) only got that 32bit after others had already had gone to 64bit.
MS can do it 5 times faster, if it wanted. It doesn't. So far playing catchup has worked extremely well. What you don't like the MS search function? Your not that bright are you? The only reason you don't like it is because you paid MS to use it. They got your money wether you like it or not. Your confused and poor, Billy isn't.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Doesnt search pdfs.
Despite being locally intalled, used unwieldy web-frontend.
Buggy. (either by design or not, it stopped after scanning 1200 files. Could be that it only scanned the Myfiles folder, but there is NO option to get it to index a folder you select...)
HI O WISE PRINCE. WHT TOOK U SO DAM LONG?
With Google you can search the Web, Usenet, your desktop but only one at at time. I want a choice to search ALL at the same time.
Yeah, their privacy policy leaves a bit to be desired. Notice that in that privacy policy, it states (among other things) that:
Your computer's content is not made accessible to Google or anyone else without your explicit permission.That says to me that sending the results (index information) to Google is technically possible, it just isn't turned on by default! I wonder how long it'll be until malicious code finds away to take advantage of the indexed information, to the detriment of the desktop user?
On the screenshots he's connecting to 127.0.0.1:4664 Does this mean I can type in ip addresses of other computers on my network that have the Google Destop installed and search them as well?
Here's a perfect example of a company that could help to push Linux on the desktop by releasing betas like this for Linux *FIRST* and then exploring possible synergies with the developer community. These guys have no idea about developing any sort of community around development.
It would also be in their interest to see Linux succeed, especially since MS will kick the living shit out of them in anything related to the desktop, so long as it provides an advantage in anything else. For that reason, they should try to generate some demand for alternative desktops in the process of testing out new technologies, giving Linux people some advantage in having new technology come to their platform at least occasionally.
For those of you who remember it, AltaVista had a great little program, called AltaVista Personal, that did a spectacular job of indexing files on your machine. Then they "webified" it. Until then, I used it like everyone uses Google today. Type in a boolean, 2 seconds later (often less), up came a list of files. Double click on them to open them.
I still miss it and hope Googles version can take it's place.
The world is made by those who show up for the job.
Problem with grep is that it doesn't index any files. It is relatively slow and it has to go through numbers of files each time you do a grep.
http://www.up0.com/
i have been using this for the past 30 minutes at work. all the while my friends are messaging me, i am reading emails - and i am able to see the status of the number of indexed items grow with every chat i engage and with every email i read(not literally of course). What scares me is how instantaneous it indexes things. it would easily allow my boss to search and find the ONE conversation that breaks policy. This is really cool - but it strikes fear into my cold black heart.
i was poking around wiht the indexes a little
(located at C:\Documents and Settings\~username~\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Google Desktop Search\ in xp) and i really wasn't able to ascertain anything. haha. i just want to see how 'encrypted' the aim chats are. logs are scary at work. and searchable hidden logs are even scarier.
Producing satire is kind of hopeless because of the literacy rate of the American public. - Frank Zappa
I tried to install and it quit complaining that I needed at least 1G of space on my c drive even though I plenty of space on my other drivers.
Wow. I'm using nod32, and google recommends that I will have to uninstall it to use the search bar. Nice going google! That's just what we need: more virus checker free computers running around the internet. Forget it; I won't be putting in the program.
Will it work on GNU/Linux?
"By default, Google Desktop Search collects a limited amount of non-personal information from your computer and sends it to Google. This includes summary information, such as the number of searches you do and the time it takes for you to see your results, and application reports we'll use to make the program better. You can opt out of sending this information during the installation process or from the application preferences at any time."
The entire text of the Privacy Policy can be found at http://desktop.google.com/privacypolicy.html
this still leaves the question of
What can be done with the information it is able to gather?
what are loops whole's in the O'Reilly Network?
Chris Williams clw7500nc@gmail.com
I did not read this before downloading:
4. What are the system requirements for running Google Desktop Search?
Google Desktop Search is currently available for Windows XP and Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 and above. To install, you must have administrator privileges (home users shouldn't have this problem; people in offices might). It also requires 500MB of space available on your hard disk. We also recommend a minimum of 128MB of RAM and a 400MHz Pentium processor.
So that you can be a significant share of the audience !!!!
:-)
Just buy a mac
Another important difference is that Spotlight will be able to do incremental search, which is a terribly much better interface for searches.
Singularity: a belief in the "God" idea with the "demiurge" relation inverted.
So along with collaborating with Federal Agencies, giving me my own special cookie, tracking everything I search, and which sites I link to from the results, storing and searching through my email, they'd now like me to install a service that searches my hard disks, suspiciously requires the closing of browsers for installation, and tries to run some kind of network service... Is it just me, or am I willingly buying into 1984, because they're "cool" and have a pretty logo? I'm defecting to the "google are creepy" camp...
Yeah, sure, I'll give up all this personal information to a corporation.
If this were a Microsoft tool, or some other company's tool, the majority of Slashdot would be crying revolution and taking to the streets. It's frightening to see how easily otherwise skeptical people give up their information to Google.
Google is becoming the new Microsoft.
jack's bicycle is music to my ears
Am I the only person that doesn't like this idea?
I don't know about you, but I kinda like having my web surfing and some directories hidden from easy view. Cough *pron*.
What happens if it catalogues my gay pr0n and then returns it as results when my friend uses my computer?? Life long embarresment ensuese.
And besides, if it searches your email on your home box, then why use gmail??
Yes, lots of MS-centric qualities here.
But the text searching alone is cool in my book. Am waiting for the crawl to reach my development folders, where this tool could search through multiple projects in multiple languages faster than anything else. Provided the code is ASCII, of course...
What Would Sutekh Do?
Anyone want to give us a comparative review?
You have to read the documentation to set it up, but swish-e is an indexing and search system that I've found to be quite effective. It can handle MSWord (with catdoc) , pdf (with xpdf) and mp3 meta tags. It's also not very hard to write a script to extract OpenOffice.org documents to stdout as well. It comes with C and perl bindings and there is a python interface as well.
Very good point... mod parent up
the installer isn't smart enough to look at drives other than C: for it's required 1Gb space! QA, please!
I have been using another app called Avafind for the longest time now. Google app wouldnt even install becuase it conflicts with netlimiter (no way im uninstalling that one! ) Avafind : http://www.think-less-do-more.com/avafind/ lets see what other ppl think about this app. take care all Yasir
The is a better tool out there for the mac: QuickSilver
http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/
I have been using that for months now and don't know how I could get by without it.
2) From About Desktop Search:
I guess I'll just throw all my files into one folder from now on. NICE!
3) find/grep/awk/sed, anyone?
The most complete of the desktop search tools is probably Enfish (commercial, free test drive). X1 searches somewhat more quickly. I worked on both, and would say that it's a difficult business proposition, particularly in the face of competition from Google.
Does anyone remember the targetted advertising of Gmail and how it sorta browses your email to place "relevent" ads on your screen?
Now uhh.. they want to be on your desktop, integrating with the browser, your email, your chat clients and so on?
Am I the only one that didn't overlook that just maybe Google wants to get in on the ground floor of your computer so it can sell you shit you're only vaguely interested in? Now I know that it says it'll only send what you give it explicit permission to send (did you read that EULA carefully? I didn't, just considering the possibilities) Also says non-identifying statistics will be sent.. you can opt out of that. What statistics? The list really sorta goes on. I'm not slamming Google for doing this. I just don't trust them as far as baby pigs can hop.
I personally can't imagine me giving Google permission to browse my computer, email, and chats at will. That's some scary stuff. I can see Homeland Security rubbing their hands together and writing the "we want that info" letters now--cause we're all terrorists you know... it's only the degree of terror we're willing to inflict.
The world according to SComps
So, has anyone so far looked at how efficient its indexing is? I mean, how (quantitatively) does the index-file size vary with material to be indexed? I guess this will depend on the type of data (whether it is indexable by Google or not, to start with) but it would be interesting to see how well it compares with the MS version. Objectively.
Microsoft might actually wake up.
From what I can see it works extremely well. I have it running now and have been doing searches through some of my files. Very fast and very easy to find relevant results.
I wish there were more options though. They really dumbed it down which is great for your average user but I would like to be able to see the indexing progress in more detail. I would also like to be able to tell it to do the indexing, not just have it wait until my computer is idle. Also they don't let you set the location of the indexed files cache. Right now it is stored in:
C:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Application Data\Google
I'd prefer it to be stored on my D: drive that is much faster. Could we also have an option to select how much memory it uses?
If, like me, you have Windows and Microsoft apps - especially Outlook - foisted on you, then take a look at Lookout. It'll index everything, including PDFs.
http://www.lookoutsoft.com/It's meant most specifically for Outlook users, but it will happily index files also. This makes Outlook go from a pain to something much more useful.
It's Windows-only, but still cool enough for this Mac guy to find it intriguing.
From the sound of things, it does exactly what OS X Tiger's Spotlight search feature will do when it's released next year. Granted, Tiger's not a free upgrade, but by the time Google gets Desktop Search reworked for OS X it might well be too late for it to matter.
Question is, then: would Linux users benefit from a tool like this?
I installed it about an hour or so ago (home pc), and have some 22,000 items indexed, which includes a portion of my work Outlook email (VPN connection, died -- looks like network is down). Searches are very quick, and it's nice that a regular google search checks your desktop search as well. I wish, like every one else that it would search my firefox cache, since I don't use IE at all except for updates. I would rarely need to search my web cache, so that's not a huge problem. Hopefully a future release will add pdf and gmail support as well. For me, IM history is not an issue since we use it so infrequently.
Will install on work PC next week - curious if it follows mapped network drives as well. Maybe I'll finally be able to find the files I've been looking for over the past two years!
what web server this soft uses?
i think i have to many servers in my machine, i would like to run this app in one i secured before
\n.\n
Really cool.. I knew that Google would do this sooner or later, but still have some issues:
1) Lookout plugin for Outlook works "good enough".. well, actually it works amazingly well. Super fast. Why should I move away from it?
2) Does Google Desktop handle GAIM log files? I haven't used AOL AIM since they started those annoying video ads.
I've been using Quicksilver for the past six months and not only do I have access to all of my drive data, iTunes playlists, Safari (and other browser) bookmarks...but I also rarely use a mouse anymore. I don't have to poke around folders at all since with a hotkey I can type a few characters for Quicksilver to present a list of likely objects that I'm looking for. QS also ranks the hits based on usage, so for the most common tasks I only have to hit the hotkey, a few (or one) character(s) and hit enter. Like, for my Slashdot bookmark it's just apple-space, type 's', and hit enter since it seems to be the most common object I use that starts with "s". Quicksilver is completely extensible through a published API and a healthy user community writing plugins to access just about any kind of data that today's Macintosh has.
Indispensible, and this is what I would hope the major MS/Apple/etc. efforts produce. Somehow I doubt it, though.
When I was a kid, we only had one Darth.
Does anyone know how to integrate the Google Desktop with the Google Deskbar?
This would be an excellent product to add some APIs to. People are complaining about PDF, Trillian, GAIM, Firefox, etc. If an API allowed users to add their own extensions to search for other formats, we wouldn't have to wait for google.
I request APIs for extensions.
Look at all this PORN!
YAY!
I LOVE my google!
*grateful tears*
Blearf. Blearf, I say.
Opens port 4664. Wonder what kinda problems this will create...
It's really spooky how efficient it is at finding things. I can see that I will be using it constantly a year from now.
She KNOWS you have been downloading porn. This will just let her find the evidence.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
Yep, 404 error now.
Please read my Canon EOS tech blog at http://www.everyothershot.com
Desktop searching is less useful than you might imagine. Truly losing track of a local document is not as common as, say, losing track of an image--now there's a hard search problem! This is where Google has the real edge over Copernic: http://www.copernic.com/ By integrating with their browser tools, Google causes every GDS search to automatically incorporate desktop results, rolled-up, at the top of the returned Google page. You see *both* local and global results for everything you look-up. This reinforces the utility of local search every time you use Google, where Copernic just sits there on the taskbar, waiting for the occasional use. So does GDS, but I'll wager you'll rarely use it. Compared to the number of times you web search and are surprised to see local hits incorporated in the return, local search will be insignificant. Reinforcement of utility is important to adoption. Even if you don't mean to, getting local drive results every time you Google will feel gratifying. Advice to Copernic: sell out to Yahoo now.
If the source code to this useful tool were released, I might trust it not to send an index of my personal info back to Google, and then to whoever convinces them to share it. Until then, it's a trojan horse.
--
make install -not war
There is a program called X1 that does the same thing. It's been out for a long time and works with Mozilla Mail and just about everything else on my HD.
http://www.x1.com/
It also works with a lot more file types.
Here is part of the list
99.9% of homes in America have a Television, but while invented in America, you cant buy an American made television anymore. You cant buy a German-made rocket, for that matter.
Innovation is important, but it is more important to turn those ideas into sustainable businesses. Google appears to understand this, which is why its founders are on a hiring spree in India, instead of employing more expensive American labor. They are in it for the long haul.
It sounds cool, but it requires a gigabyte of available disk space? Not only that, but this space must be on C:\
Those of us who keep small windows partitions and larger data partitions may be out of luck for now.
I've been using a similar indexing tool, called QuickSearch, that indexes files for quick retrieval. It is very lightweight and very quick.
http://www.vbrad.com/source/prg_qsearch.htm
Being a Linux user, I was jealous for about 45 seconds.
Then I remembered that I store absolutely everything relavant to my life on a central server under my home directory and that I use grep, awk, and find to effortlessly do these search-things and more.
Packaging things that UNIX users have had for users and bringing it to the masses is such a tried and true business model. ;)
At least that's the way I interpreted it.
Did http://desktop.google.com/ get slashdotted?
yee haw!
How much more do we have to read smarmy comments like "still cool enough for this Mac user". What does it actually take to impress a Mac user, for chrissake? The word "Google"? Some colored plastic? A keynote speech by Steve Jobs.
Come on, guys, the bar is a lot higher than that. Impressing Mac users will get us nowhere.
Don't try that "protecting the children" shit you people use to keep the tits and bad words off my TV. --Seanbaby
I wonder how long it will take for the first individuals to reverse engineer some of the underlying indexing, pagerank and search algorithms.
Although this might not be an easy feat (it is safe to assume they have used mechanisms to prevent that; and even then, reverse engineering algorithms from binary code is not an easy craft) it still is bound to happen.
Does the searching actually take place on your own computer? Could someone dissect this program, then, and get an insight into the elusive google search criteria?
One of the many things I hate. thingsihate.org
I've been using this for years on Linux; it's called 'locate'.
Dinomite.net
Oh sure, correlate non personal information. Doesn't that make it personal?
Google search: we know what you dont know
Gmail: we know who you know
GoogleDesktopSearch: All your base are belong to us?
"Your copy of Google Desktop Search includes a unique application number. When you install Google Desktop Search, this number and a message indicating whether the installation succeeded is sent back to Google so that we can make the software work better."
I wonder how long it will be before some scruffy looking, smelly but intelligent coder releases Google Desktop Search Lite? A modified version which doesn't send anything back to the mother ship?
It's been known to happen with other applications, not that I recommend or advocate such activities.
as seen in this lovely screenshot...
h ics/gd_1_homepage.jpg
:|
http://www.oreillynet.com/network/2004/10/14/grap
the google search majiger mabob appears to be running some sort of web server on some sort of port...
as a paranoid network security student, this makes me wonder what the security implications of having a nice little web page to search through all your files are...
-judging another only defines yourself
Found this, looks promising for linux and mac, java too! link
Ok, what am I suppose to type into the google search to find this site??
l e&btnG=Google+Search
...
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=desktop+goog
Above doesn't give me desktop.google.com
So, unless we already knew the url, it would be impossible to find using google search...
The page isn't even indexed in google...
The weird thing is that unless google treats its own pages different, you won't even be able to find this site within 3 months, unless you are willing to work your way down to the 200:th ranked page.
Don't tell me it's because the site is new, I know this, the problem is that it will be "invisible" for at least 3 months for google, but will show up on yahoo and msn -search within a week or two.. So if I switched to Windows and decided to use this product, any new document wouldnt show up until it was 3 months old?? HUH??
Even though I turned off all the talkback features it keeps trying to connect out to Google every 10 minutes.
Tisk Tisk.
According to Google, it will only index the files once the computer has been idle for 30 seconds. However, after the installation I searched and got some results even though it wasn't idle for 30 seconds.
Opera Watch - An Opera browser blog.
OK, not sure how Google Desktop crawls through files, but it is apparently done with its "initial" indexing, and none of my development files appear to be searchable. I searched for a very common widget name that should have been found in dozens of text files, and got zero results. Maybe it is still crawling? Can anyone else report on the extent/usefulness of the text indexing?
What Would Sutekh Do?
and since it's google even if the hardware or HD fails the system will keep on working !
Sanity is the trademark of a weak mind. -- Mark Harrold
Didn't several search engines do this already, with lukewarm results? If what makes google different is pagerank*, what exactly are they bringing to the table for searching your hard drive that hasn't already been done?
(*whether you agree or not that it creates better search results)
"I forgot my mantra."
Try out quicksilver. It will allow you to catalog just about anything in order to get fast access with just a quick key combo. (Launch apps, custom searches, search filesystem, control iTunes, etc.)
I'd be a bit wary if I plugged in my USB keydrive into a friend's computer and suddenly the whole contents pop up in his private google index.
If a person is such a lazy disorganised fuck that they need Google to look after their local files then they'll get everything they deserve when the next M$ targetted virus gets in and is able to grab ALL their information through a nice convenient localized Google database.
There's no excuse for not laying out files in an organized manner. It's really not that hard.
Next they'll want crustless bread, frickin' pansies.. no wait!
how often do you ever see the originators of ideas become the primary winner (profit, corporate health) from those ideas?
How do you recognise pioneers? They're the ones with arrows in their backs. Just look at Farnsworth vs. RCA (television), Tesla vs Edison (AC power), Andreeson vs Microsoft (web browser).
[SCO vs Linux - ha - just kidding]
That being said, all many inventors want to do is to invent new stuff. Their time is best spent doing that, rather than working out business and marketing plans. I do wish that our society would give more attention and financial rewards to the true innovators, without needing to get hordes of lawyers involved.
Okay, super tool. But what does mining our hard-drives provide Google? * Even more targetted advertising possibilities? Integrate with mozilla/IE and they "provide" us with advertising du jour (final delivery via gmail and internet-google of course.) * Very tantalizing is the possibility that independent hackers will turn desktop-search into a incredible P2P search/find/share tool. I could write such a tool from scratch but getting millions to adopt it would be a major hassle. If Google has already penetrated the desktops, creating a hacked-p2p-shell around their search-tool would be a KILLER APP. THe possibilities are enormous. Even Google might conceivably do this -- Google should be aware that I've patented this idea and retained D. Boies and J. Cochran.
"Once the Google search technology is installed for free on a personal computer, it will transmit basic data daily about usage patterns. For example, it will tell the company how often Google is being used to search personal computers, how often it is used to search the Web, and how often simultaneous searches are done. Google lets users opt out of sending some usage data, but not all of it.
However, Mayer said the data collected will be aggregated so that the company knows where to focus its efforts on upgrading the search technology. She emphasized that the daily up-loading will not transmit any personal information to Google and said it is typical for major software programs that offer voluntary upgrades and fixes for bugs to capture that sort of information as a matter of routine."
This makes me hesitate to install it on my work PC, even though indexing Outlook is soooo tempting ...
Imposing Libertarian views on everyone online since 1992.
Google should create an API that will let users create plugins for other filetypes. In no we'll have support for every file format under the sun.
I know for a fact, that there are people at NASA who were rooting for Rutan to fail in his quest for the X-Prize, because his success would make it harder for them to gain additional government funding.
It's a lot less fun when your Google search finds your OWN porn.
... they are available at
C:\Documents and Settings\YOURUSERNAME\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Google Desktop Search\
You can delete the folder completely.
Well, I've installed the google desktop search, and of course I'm prompted by the classic error message saying that I need the administrator account to install it.
So I switch to my 'root' account (not admin), and install it, and worked flawlessly. Of course I had to give it a test shot, and it worked great. Did exactly what it said it did.
Now, I just greated some word files on my desktop to see if it would work, and obviously it did. It's interesting to see that the desktop search actually runs as a daemon. It is also nicely integrated with the google website providing a consistent interface.
The only that I would bitch about is that you can't run it from a non-admin account, which doesn't serve the purpose of the program. And no, run-as doesn't work either.
Now assuming the average user has Windows XP home edition, and they only use the administrator account, this utility would work flawless.
Perhaps there will be some support in the future for Netscape's and e-mail.
Hmm, wonder if this handy google utility will beat Microsoft's database filesystem, this is really interesting to see how it would develop. Keep up the good work google.
Despite my stings, it still seems a great little utility.
gave the following:
meh, worth a shot
...(for some purposes) is seruku.com, which *selectively* (on/off button) indexes/caches everything you've browsed.
Sadly, just for IE still (I think).
A coworker and I are playing with this right now. He mapped his 'My Documents' folder to a mapped network share, and it got indexed. That's the only way we've gotten it to work so far...
Your monitor is staring at you.
Anyone know how the index is stored? I assume it's stored locally?
So does the index return the results to google, so google can render it to you?
Call me skeptical, but if there's sensitive information, how much does google see?
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
It's not a troll; it was an attempt at contribution. Milo clearly doesn't speak English natively and is using Babelfish to translate directly from German to English (the syntax is obvious; check out his journal). I think the guy is doing OK!
licet differant, aequabitur
The software was demoed and handed out at WWDC 2004. I installed it and did the exact same thing Steve did and guess what, it worked exactly the same. In fact, if you sign up for ADC select (or, if you went to WWDC), you can download the updated software seed that runs even faster.
The only gullibility that's going on is you thinking Apple is full of lies and deceit just like Microsoft....
Does anyone know how well/if at all does this integrate with the google deskbar?
Personally I use Quicksilver. It's not so much a keyword searcher as a "type in a couple letters at any time from any app after hitting a key combo and it presents you with a list of everything on your computer containing those letters, organized by relevancy (help files don't get placed higher than the app they are for, for example), and once you select something it remembers those letters so the next time you type them it presents the app/document/bookmark/etc you chose as the first choice."
that was a mouthful. But seriously, if you're on OS X, and you don't check out Quicksilver, you're only hurting yourself. No matter what you're doing you are only a keystroke away from being able to open anything on your keyboard.
Did I mention it's free and has source docs and specs on its website? It even has an option in the prefs to turn on (or off) superfluous visual effects. In short, it's fricken awesome.
If you get nervous, just remember that there are a few billion other people who don't really give a damn.
Seems to bind itself to 127.0.0.1 only.
Nice.
Quick poll: How long before malvare starts using Google's thingy to find sensitive information?
With it, malvare can catalogoue your complete computer inventory (including files, IM contatcs, mail, addressbook...) and deliver it to someone waiting at a nearby IRC channel. Good times ahead.
I type the word bug into my search box, it behold it list everything in the system32 directory.
(OK -- read the whole branch before posting; mod me down -1 Sucker too!)
licet differant, aequabitur
It would be very interesting to see the comparison.
They've also posted a newsgroup where you can go and chat about it: http://groups-beta.google.com/group/Google-Desktop -Search
I have often regretted my speech, never my silence.
-Xenocrates
This was quite expected, there have been rumors about it for quite some time. The bad thing is that at least in this very particular case M$ did have an edge over google. For close to decade M$ has had an indexing tool that is quite effecient in searching through the files for text and other information. And it is quite real time too. If you search through the index and then modify any file the index is updated immediately. However because of internal conflicts in M$, they have not been able to put it at the fore front. It has a poor interface, and is disabled by default. Though XP gives a slightly better interface to it. I still don't know how many people enable it. Too Bad I can't use it, it says that it requires 1 GB(Hello I think next time it might say I have P3) of hard disk and I only have 248 MB left. If I really had 1 GB I would be playing Halo.
I guess it's going to be a lot harder to hide my Pron now :P
I LIKE TOAST!!!
Google is company that specializes in search technology. They do not write browsers or operating systems.
instrumentos@bertschi.com.ar
Both Copernic Desktop Search and Google Desktop offer interesting and unique features. I would say they share the power of a good search engine returning relevant results but the following features make a difference:
Google:
- Installs in seconds
- Web-based
- Results can be seen in a classic google search
Copernic:
- Results are presented in a timeline, so fresh results (or your work in progress) appears at the top of hit list
- Offers more customization options. You can easily include or exclude floder trees, for instance.
I'll wait.
/Lars
It appears to work with Mac OS X, VPC 6 and WXP. I haven't done a ful scale test yet. It did have a few problems connecting to the local server when starting up the first time but after that it came right up.
qz
Copernic Desktop Search http://www.copernic.com/ is also free and pretty good too.
Anyone remember Deus Ex, and that AI Echelon IV that was there to "tell people everything about themself"? Yeah, to me this Google Desktop thing seems about as creepy. ;) But that's the very small fragment of Libertarian in me creeping up and crying foul. =)
-Vendal Thornheart
Kind of like the American incarnation of democracy. Started here, improved over seas.
Not everything is analogous to cars. Car analogies rarely work.
Desktop Search indexes all of my local Python scripts, which is very cool, but when I click on the link to the script, it runs it!
I realize it's just doing what my system is configured to do, but I had expected to see the source code.
It'd be nice if Google would display scripts as preformatted text, maybe with syntax highlighting. And fries.
Has anyone heard of any plans to release this on portage? I'd love to be able to search my Gentoo box. If Google would open source the code I'd even do the port myself, or at least coordinate the effort by setting up a blog, a wiki, and a site on SourceForge. I'm still trying to learn to write code in Ruby, it's a lot harder than Python, but seems to be a more robust and mature language. I really like the OOP features. Either way, this is a great application, and I can't wait until I can port it to Gentoo.
new 15" 1.5 with everything
It indexes C/C++ files! Google wins!
What would be interesting would be if the application would analyze the types of documents and words that it found on your system and compare them against social profiles. So for example, after google had indexed your system, it would say "You're a loser" or "You're a workaholic" or "You're a troll on Slashdot". It sounds sort of silly, but I bet you could learn a lot about someone by looking over the word index of the Google Desktop.
Oh, the heck with Karma. I'm asking nicely. I'd like a GMail invite from someone please. This will be modded to burnt toast soon, so send me one while this is still at 1. Eternal thanks. I have a specific application in mind for the GMail drive extension recently mentioned here, and no account to test it on. See my journal for my addy.
Apparenlty this little app doesn't like my NOD32 anti-virus software: Google Desktop Search is not currently compatible with another program on your system. You will need to uninstall this program if you would like to install Google Desktop Search. The following may help to identify the program: NOD32 Anti-virus imon.dll I01 Click OK to report this problem to Google, or click cancel to exit without reporting the problem. Now, I can probably shut down NOD32 and install, but I'm a little too busy to fight .dlls at the moment.
I'm afraid they've slapped their name on another marketing move with little potential. They're not the first into the market, and they're many features short of being the best.
The Google Search Appliance was their first cola: a minimal port of their web search and crawling platform, with a Google brand name as the only selling point. It's a feature-deficient, PHB-created product in a market with better and cheaper alternatives. Sales have been disappointing, and it's on its second or third product manager.
Now we get a half-baked, non-portable, closed product that shows ads at us when we search our own data. Sorry, Google, you should be able to do better with all that IPO cash.
---- "If we have to go on with these damned quantum jumps, then I'm sorry that I ever got involved" - Erwin Schrodinger
They bought Tukaroo for this kind of thing, but google beat them to the punch. After the buyout I remember seeing someone look for an old beta copy on Craig's List. The tukaroo app looked nicer than this initial google release.
This was quite expected, there have been rumors about it for quite some time. The bad thing is that at least in this very particular case M$ did have an edge over google. For close to decade M$ has had an indexing tool that is quite effecient in searching through the files for text and other information. And it is quite real time too. If you search through the index and then modify any file the index is updated immediately. However because of internal conflicts in M$, they have not been able to put it at the fore front. It has a poor interface, and is disabled by default. Though XP gives a slightly better interface to it. I still don't know how many people enable it. Too Bad I can't use it, it says that it requires 1 GB of hard disk and I only have 248 MB left. I just wonder what reaction of /. would have been had this been the case with Microsoft Desktop.
I believe that we're going to see this feature in Longhorn... True, the Google brand makes this a viable product, but of course there have been utils with this same functionality on the web for some time now. I can't name any and I haven't installed any but I do recall downloading a couple last year some time.
The Longhorn version is going to be implemented as SQL-lite running on your windows box that uses data/metadata pegged to the upcoming WinFS.
"The Borba"
...for Google Apartment for when I'm trying to find my keys that I put down somewhere the night before after coming home drunk.
The earlier versions are far better.
A few weeks ago there was an Ask Slashdot about filesystem search tools. Somebody mentioned Swish-e or Swish++. I have been using Swish++ in 2 applications since then - to search documents uploaded to a MediaWiki, and also to search a big pile of source code, libraries, documents etc. It has worked well in both situations. I even have it pulling symbols out of library files, so with a single search for a function I can find which header file it's defined in, and which library to link. It's very fast too, basically instantaneous. However the index file is a bit large (274 megs for about 5.2 gigs of data). (Yes I know Swish settings can change the index size radically.)
.index file in every directory, and having a daemon running on every machine which can aggregate query results from other machines. Obviously, files inside tarballs should be indexed too. I suspect Reiser4 would make some of this stuff easier, that it will be done eventually.
Somebody needs to write a good distributed search tool which could replace find, locate, grep -r, swish etc. You should be able to specify which file types you are interested in, on which machines, and have the option to limit it to certain directories or regular-expression filenames or file owners/permissions; and search file names only, or all file metadata (including embedded metadata like EXIF tags, ID3 tags, HTML tags, etc.), or the file contents, or some combination. I would probably implement it by putting a
By the way, it would be nice to see the search window open up in something a little more lightweight than a full-blown instance of IE.
Have fun: Join D.N.A. (National Dyslexics Association)
> Andreeson vs Microsoft (web browser).
Marc Andreeson invented the idea of a web browser? Wow, I have to wonder what the people who actually invented the web browsers (at least two of them) before Andreeson even knew what the web was have to say about that.
You want to know who isn't running Firefox 2.x? They spell it "definately" and "rediculous".
It seems to me this tool opens up some "opportunities", if you will, to exploit windows machine user content. I'm not implying that the google desktop has security holes, windows has enough of them. But now, harddrive contents can be more easily searched using the google desktop interface.
It runs as webservice on port 4664. It only responds to internal requests (localhost) but that doesnt mean a virus couldnt embed requests encoded that way to learn about the files stored on the system.
BTW, the google desktop shows how poor IE is about clearing its cache. I have IE set up (on my xp test box no SPs) to clear the cache every day. Yet, when I query google desktop I get "hits" about websites I visited days ago.
An application like this that adds value to an existing OS (and in particular the fact that it does it via a web based interface) can only lessen the demand for anyone to upgrade their OS (especially to Longhorn)...
KDE will soon launch its own version of "desktop search". see www.kde.org
oh and now that I said KDE... check this
Where and how does Google figure out what documents to index? Why does it only work for Microsoft documents? Why support only AIM? Why can't you point it to a directory to index?
l es -does-google-desktop-index
http://www.manageability.org/blog/stuff/what-fi
if you use the google deskbar with the google desktop, it means you can use search your whole computer from the taskbar!
Is there a way to make it search other file types? I assumed that it would pick up all of my plain text files, but .log files (such as from mIRC) don't seem to be indexed at all.
.log files to .txt and having that interfere with the programs that created the files, is there an easier way of forcing Google Desktop to realize that .log = text?
Aside from renaming all of my
I currently use Agent Ransack, but it's only a fancy version of the standard Windows search. It can only search consecutive keywords, not keywords mixed throughout a document. If Google Desktop can't do it, is there another program out there that can? Preferably free?
Hmm, interesting. The install just failed for me because it is clashing with my excellent MailDefense email protection tool. And the Indefense company site is strangely 404 AWOL at the moment. Coincidence?
but I did predict last month that this is what they were doing.
Yeah, I suck.
Google Desktop Search has the longest list of programs it's not compatible with I've seen in a long time. I wonder why a hard disk search program is incompatible with net programs.n swer=10742
I have NetLimiter and couldn't install.
http://desktop.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?a
Google Desktop seems to install itself only on C:
If you don't have enough space on C:, you're out of luck... it says you need 1 GB free on C:
It does searches on my java files. I just found a class definition.
It would be nice if it searched inside ZIP files.
Looks good! Solves the "google won't work on linux or with firefox" problem already mentioned, and it doesn't come from teh bigco organization!
Personally, I'm getting a little wary of google trying to be all things for the net and computers. Seems like we have seen that before someplace....
Hope someone can help you with the RPMS, got the new fedora out next month, I'll try it then. I usually do a full clean install every new distro version, don't really save much in the way of data files, but I will tryout your proggie then!
It's made an app and released it for free. Is the only benefit to Google an increased presence on the user's machine, in turn likely spurring more Google searches from the user?
Just means it won't save and be able to lookup your previous search results.
After some digging I've found where Google Desktop stores its data files.
\Documents And Settings\~UserName\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Google Search Desktop
I have 33k searchable items: 23k emails, 9.4k files and 268 web pages. The data files are consuming 227 MB, which is well shy of the 1 GB Google says it requires.
I was wondering if this application uses any of the same technologies their web search engine uses? The reason I ask is because distributing the software opens the door for reverse engineering, so I doubt there is any ultra-special technology in this tool.
Dan East
Better known as 318230.
the several times they explicitly state that "The Google Desktop Search program does not make your computer's content accessible to Google or anyone else"?
I wonder read fear that this tool might do something with my results.
OK, I had a long day at the electron farm, I can always firewall this thang to keep it from "phoning home".
Anyone seen any evidence of this app collecting data and trying to disseminate it?
Gates did not become the richest man in the world by writing good software.
It certainly indexed my .py source files. If the indexing hasn't finished, the search result will tell you it's incomplete.
I'm looking forward to comparing Google's offering, and seeing how it stacks up; if it's even close, I'm sure it will take over on brand name alone.
Products like this definitely does change the way one uses their PC, not having to worry about finding things.
Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
G-spot, anyone?
Now it's easier than ever for them to snoop around on your computer. Hope you don't do anything wrong. Who's that knocking??? I think it's the RIAA. Please!
We obviously have the search engine's source code. A search engine that fits in 400KB (the setup file). So Google just gave away part of their source? (The clustering part has obviously been removed) Otherwise, google just sends index data to the google servers, and our data is searched there. Which sounds more logical. Plus, I hope port 4664 (or w/e the port number was) is filtered, and not anyone can just access it. I hope Google didn't just rely on the possible firewalls.
it's more effective if you kick their ass on their own turf. Search outlook better than outlook can, find that word doc faster than the OS can even with fast find enabled, give the ablility to search IE history which IE doesn't have. Brilliant.
So, does it index contents of PDF files as well?
And this sucks in a major way. I haven't been using MS e-mail software for a year now, and while Firefox search isn't that bad per se, I think indexing my email with Google would add a lot of value anyway.
In brief:
COPERNIC:
- Supports more formats
- Been around longer
- An app, not a Web service
- Uses more cycles
GDS:
- 400K, ridiculously lightweight
- Currently indexes few apps
- Optionally integrated with Google search results
- Blindingly fast
- Uses familiar Google searching syntax
Only the truly shameless shill their blog in a Slashdot sig
You claim your a top programmer but why ain't we seeing this then? We hear this constantly that MS is has the best (small reminder SCO has the best lawyers, we all know how well they are doing) but we ain't seeing the evidence.
Why is there still no PNG support in IE. Why is IE so full of holes. Why does every single fucking windows version still crash for no reason with a fresh install?
Wich wonder kid did decide that file explorer should read every movie files in a directory no matter how many there are? And totally hang if it happens to be a broken avi.
Why can't windows media player play broken avi's but mplayer can?
Why did windows media player report wich dvd's you watched along with your ip?
There is a huge difference between being a top programmer and delivering good work. As I said. MS has the best, I didn't deny this. But somewhere something is going wrong. If not please explain the above.
Oh and you going to your boss to make your point heard is not the same as he listening. Geez, your so smart and you don't even get this?
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Gotta love the download instructions, with image of IE download dialog.
.exe files straight off the page..."
They should add "or if your browser is slightly security aware, and doesn't allow you to run
How sure are we they didn't sub-contract writing this to MS?
Get a Windows emulator/VM machine for Linux, buy an old W98 CD from Ebay.
Share your directories using Samba from your Linux machine to your Windows Virtual machine.
Unless the Google thing is too picky it should use the network dirves created like this.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
This actually looks like a good lite version of Microsoft's Infopath product!
Great work - over time, google might actually be able to build this product up to knock Infopath righ out of Microsoft's catalog! or perhaps force them to release it into open source...
Why would anyone pay for a product that they can get free from google?
The1Genius - Littera Scripta Manet
Unlike Windows Indexing Service (which runs as a service and creates one single index file for the whole system), Google Desktop Search runs as a user process, creating a separate index file for each user. While not as space-efficient, this has the advantage that, unlike Indexing Service, it can index files that only that user can read, due to either permissions or encryption.
If you use Google Desktop Search in an account that has files protected by EFS or other encryption systems that are transparent to applications, make sure that the Google Desktop index file is also stored in an encrypted directory to avoid exposing information. (The default location is %systemdrive%\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Google Desktop Search, so if you already have your complete home directory (Documents and Settings\<username>) encrypted, then you're set.)
Alta Vista published an app just like this when they were riding high about five years ago. It got no traction because they charged $35 a pop for it and they did not promote it well, but it actually worked fairly well.
I assume that the problems with non-M$ browsers are due to the way that IE caches whole pages on a permanent basis in the sub-directories:
C:\Documents and Settings\User_Name\Local settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5,
while the Mozilla caches are flushed more frequently. An OO problem may be that the text in OO 1.1.x sxw files is zipped. I would assume that this, like the pdf problem, can be overcome in time.
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
It would be cool if it started another space race and NASA benefited. :"We will make it the moon, [again]...before Pepsi-Walmart One. Not because it is easy, but because they already own everthing on this fucking planet and they can't have our moon"
Imagine Kerry saying , in his Kennedyesque way
thought i'd give this a go, and this is the first thing i saw:
a nswer.py?an swer=10742
Google Desktop Search is not currently compatable with another program on your system. You will need to uninstall this program if you would like to install Google Desktop Search. The following may help identify your program:
Different network providers:
CA ISafe LSP over [MSAFD Tcpip [TCP/IP]]
MSAFD Tcpip [UDP/IP]
C:\WINDOWS\System32\VetRedir.dll
I01
Click OK to report this problem to Google or click cancel to exit without reporting the problem.
[OK] [Cancel]
-----
What the hell i this thing trying to do!? See that "VetRedir.dll" thats part of Vet Antivirus, I'm not uninstalling/disabling that.
And have a look at this, just about stops anyone using a any virus/firewall software:
http://desktop.google.com/support/bin/
Thats a big delete to GoogleDesktopSearchSetup.exe
btw, you hit cancel, and it still tries to connect.
We are the little tin man, with hearts like little tin cans As we line them with tears, they inevitably turn to rust
From the GDS newgroup
1. Open regedit
2. Create the registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Google\Google Desktop
3. Create a string value entry named "install_dir", the value of which should be the desired install path
4. Create a string value entry named "data_dir", the value of which should be the desired data path (where GDS will keep the indexing data).
5. Run the GDS installer.