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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."
Doesn't work with Mozilla, or Opera, or Pegasus mail, or Eudora..... Guess I'll wait for something less MS centric.
Three Squirrels
Already two Mac people in my office are fairly jealous, because this is what they thought Sherlock would be- but wasn't.
It's also what Spotlight should be...(next release of OS X, Tiger)
Monstar L
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
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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
Here is a thorough review.
Opera Watch - An Opera browser blog.
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
I'm a Mac user, and this made me shrug. The next version of OSX due out (early next year I think) has this feature built-in. What's neat is it's integrated into the OS, and the APIs are exposed, so developers can easily take advantage of it.
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2B1ASK1
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.
Somehow I think Google didn't just take their "Google engine" and throw it in an .exe file. In fact, the amount of files on a typical computer could be solved using some kind of SQL database engine, or a simple XML storage system. I don't think this application is about the engine, but about the indexing that takes place. Unless you have a billions of files on your computer, the Google engine would be overkill.
I'd go as far to say that this product has absolutely nothing to do with the "google engine". Just another nice app courtesy of the Google labs. The way it integrates into google.com is kind of freaky, though.
I assume that means it integrates with Firefox too.
not really.
Hmm, wonder what happened.
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.
It does integrate, but is not fully functionnal yet.
>>
Q: I can't find webpages I viewed with Mozilla Firefox.
A:
Google Desktop Search is only partially compatible with Mozilla Firefox. If you install Desktop Search and open a Firefox browser window, you'll see a 'Desktop' link appear on the Google homepage. You can click this link to go to the Desktop Search homepage whenever you want to search with Desktop Search.
Web pages which you view in Firefox aren't added to your Desktop Search index, however, so you won't be able to find them with Desktop Search.
We realize that many of our users use Mozilla Firefox as their primary browser, and we may consider adding increased Firefox support in a future version of Desktop Search.
Nouvelles de jeux et technologies en français. TC
I would be very surprised if Google Desktop Search doesn't have this functionality by the time Tiger is released. Are there other ways in which Spotlight goes "WAY beyond"?
You don't have to wait until next year to have this type of application on your Mac actually. Check out Launchbar, Quicksilver and Butler. All do exactly what the Google Desktop does, only they are able to search through more types of files and items, and are better integrated with the filesystem. It's nice that Google threw Window's users a bone though. I may use it at work.
The Rise and Fall of Online Community
"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.
http://desktop.google.com/support/bin/request.py
Look! They have a specific category on their feedback page for asking to Firefox support.
Why not jump on and ask them to hurry up and support it. They aren't psychic (or maybe they are. gooogle is pretty damn good).