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Google Adds Features and Plugin to Desktop Search
Matthew Bischoff writes "Today Google added new features to its popular desktop software. Google
Desktop now supports alternative Netscape based browsers like Firefox,
PDFs, images, video, and music files. Google also added a plug-ins
feature so that developers can integrate their software into the Google Desktop
catalog. Another new addition is a supported way to search from Google's deskbar
software. It's probably a matter of time until we see desktop search integrated
into all of the Google products including the controversial Google
Toolbar 3." Google Desktop is also officially now out of beta.
If you go to toolbar.google.com in firefox (or Netscape, I assume), they now promote the open-source googlebar extension for Firefox. They also offer a toolbar 3.x beta for IE now.
Also, they have setup a download page where you can grab individual download packages, or all of their packages in one zip file. www.google.com/downloads/
And of course there was the slashdot article, the other day describing the new Weather feature and Gmail Improvements.
What am I missing here?
Great! Now if only IE and Windows were out of beta, we'd be set.
Someone (Google) is creating useful shareware software to enhance the Windows operating system... and Microsoft probably sees this as a threat.
So when do we see a Linux version.
I actually use this - as a Server Search tool! Check some instructions ... Not sure if it is going to work with this new Google Desktop Search version - but will test soon.
Also, good to see Google isn't doing an eternal beta on this product like its Google News offering (the whole beta thing gets annoying after 2 continuous years!)
Get a free iPod Nano 4GB!
I assume they're not risking their "don't do any bad "-policy for this ?
So what -is- the catch ?
I am fedup with using the regurlar search in Windows, so I am defenitely in for some improvement.
I tried it before and deleted it because it lacked support for Firefox cache searches. I'm installing it now to see if it has improved.
I've had Google Desktop Search installed on my main machine for a couple months now.
.c or .h as text to index them?
What, exactly does it do? Find files by name? I already have a tool to do that.
I mean, it's just another useless service to run.
I'm being serious. Tell me something neat and impressive that I can make it do, so I too can start preaching the genious of Google.
I tried searching, for example, for some phrases that I know are in some sourcecode files I have. It didn't find the files containing the code. I guess it doesnt recognize
If found stuff in a word doc that i made just to test it, but the built in search already does that.
So, what's it do? Why do I need it? Why does this need to be integrated into every app on my desktop?
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
i don't use google desktop search. copernic desktop search software is much better (at least for me). once you move your emails in outlook from 1 folder to another, google will no longer be able to open up the email correctly. it's also not intuitive as to how one can reindex email/files etc after installation. as much as i like a lot of their services, desktop search isn't one of them.
No thanks i'm keepin it off my machine!
The GoogleBar better be able to search for a few good mixed drink recipes, otherwise this is the worst bar yet!
I was already disappointed with the ToolBar that did not have any 18v cordless versions.
"The more pity, that fools may not speak wisely what wise men do foolishly" - Touchstone,Shakespeare's "As You Like It"
In other news, SUSE Pro 9.3 is said to be released this Wednesday the 9th, with Beagle (Desktop search) and iPod support, according to the following article which even Novell.com links to on their front page:
0 20 390,39190538,00.htm
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/linuxunix/0,39
Is Google Desktop Search > Beagle?
Can you search mapped network drives yet or just local hard drive?
I think most Slashdotters will be pleased (or at least would be, if they used IE) with the new Spellcheck feature on the Google Toolbar. That's a pretty cool feature.
The ability to search PDF's seems like it could be useful if it is actually searching inside the PDF. I haven't actually seen another Windows based tool do that, so for me this could make Google Desktop more than the "toy" it is (for me) at the moment (It doesn't do anything a structured file system cannot).
So good improvements. I can't see what is so controversial about the toolbar though.
- Jax
What? Google's advertising on my desktop? I didn't notice! Their advertising is so effective now it doesn't even have to be visible!
The rate Google is making strides to take over and redefine people's www interaction is quite alarming. From the original "just another search engine" beginnings, Google have made a lot of inroads. I see Google ads all over the place. I load the Google toolbar into IE to get an easier search and now I have intrusive "nannyware" that watches over my shoulder like Clippy does: "I see you've done xxxx a few times, do you want to create a shortcut?".
Tinfoil hat time folks.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
I guess I've been using a computer for too long because I have no use for desktop search tools. I learned to make folders and file my files appropriate a long time ago, and as a result, I never have to search for anything.
Don't get me wrong I installed the first Google Desktop Search, thought it was cool as hell, then never used it again. I just don't have a need.
Google Desktop now supports alternative Netscape based browsers like Firefox
Surely the other way round? Netscape is now based on Gecko (and IE). Firefox can hardly be called netscape based these days...
The Google Toolbar now has a spell check built it. Now if it only had a feature that would electricute the user everytime he wrote something in 1337.
I totally do not get "desktop search." Who is this feature targeted towards, and why does it get so much press, when so many users evidently have no clue that they need it?
The only reason the Google Toolbar 3 is controversial is because Slashdotters haven't taken the time to look at how it really works. Most think that the Autolink feature creates links that weren't put there by the page's creator (automatically linking an address to Google maps, for instance). In reality, you have to visit a page then click the Autolink button. It's automatic in a semi-automatic gun kind of way. Sure, it's doing a lot of stuff on its own, but it needs you to start telling it to do so before it starts. Not controversial since it's use is optional.
You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life. --Winston Churchill
"Google Desktop Search can only be used when the account from which it was installed is logged in."
Yep, that lovely message is still there when I try to use it in my main work account.
Oh, well. Maybe next time.
Find every occurence of a name in 400MB worth of email in less than a second. Something that crashes Eudora and takes forever in Outlook.
There is a plugin for this new version of Google Desktop search that allows you to specify additional file extensions to search as text files - for example, your .c and .h files.
Shareware?
Shouldn't this item be from the "better late than never" department? All the other technical websites and even news services were on top of this early this morning...
Does this matter in the face of Apple releasing search throughout Tiger in the next two months? Microsoft are behind, but still have search coming in Longhorn next year.
Search is great, but I don't see a value-add for anyone other than the OS company itself to develop it.
As long as Google Desktop encrypts the index to AT LEAST 256-bits, I'll be happy.
Debugging? Klingons do not debug. Bugs are good for building character in the user.
Say you visit websites that you don't want indexed? How do you stop it?
There's been an informal campaign for mozilla suite support in GDS ever since it was launched
Last week Copernic 1.5b was released with full support, now Google are producing the same feature. Coincidence? If so tough luck, I already switched from GDS!
I have been a user for about 10 years. This ends Feb 2014. The site's been ruined. I'm off. Dice, FU
The submitter is a lunatic?
It finds files by content, and much faster than does the Windows search. Without indexing on, Windows must search every file individually. With the caching on, it's somewhat faster, but still abysmally slow compared to Google's search. There were some very painful limitations until now, particularly the lack of PDF searches. I'm hoping that there will be some ability to customize the searches somewhat further to allow for searching straight text files like .c, .h, or .php.
Google's search utility uses a variant of their own caching technology to make searches much faster. The new plug-in technology will allow someone to make add-ons for searching code.
You can never go home again... but I guess you can shop there.
People seem to be overlooking the real news contained in this story: a Google product actually out of beta. Surely a first?
So when is GMail supplosed to come out of beta? It seems like everybody who wants it has it already. I won't see what harm a 1.0 release would do.
Here is a good article on gds http://battellemedia.com/archives/001305.php
MSN's desktop search tool will search PDF files if you install Adobe's Acrobat IFilter plugin. I've found it valuable several times.
Whoever corrects a mocker invites insult;
whoever rebukes a wicked man incurs abuse.
--Proverbs 9:7
n00b, n00bie n00bie n00bie. Ultra noob, super noob. noob noob noob noob noob noob!! NOOB NOOB NOOB NOOB NOOB NOOB
What the hell are you 10?
Taco?
Cool.
.pst file is 724,304KB at the moment.
.pst file at all when I tried it.
I don't delete emails. I happen to be using Outlook, too.
Google search doesnt (the version I tried) index the mailbox.pst file. Maybe it does now. My
So searching all my email for all references to a particular product takes... 29 seconds for a full text search. Less than two for a subject line only search.
Google does this better or faster? How please, because like I said, it didn't index the
If it works, then maybe that's something useful. Frankly though, 29 seconds isn't going to break me.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Uh, read the feature list. If you don't like it, don't use it. Windows built in search won't help you find that website you saw the other day but can't remember now and can't find in your history. Windows built in search is shitty for finding content inside files, and Outlook is shitty at finding content inside emails.
It's just a little better. Enough that it's worth using, while Windows built in search is not.
There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
The thing is that in general people tend to hate Microsoft because they have performed ethically deplorable actions that have negatively impacted the computer industry and its users.
They don't just hate Microsoft because Microsoft is successful, as many of Microsoft's defenders seem to think they do.
So unless you try to excessively simplify things, there does not seem to be an immediate logical reason that if Google becomes successful, people will begin to hate them too in significant number.
Google would have to start performing ethically deplorable actions that negatively impact the computer industry and its users for that.
I'm sure some people do just hate whatever's successful, of course. But I don't think they're anything other than an insignificant minority.
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
There are alot of problems this has with Antivirus and firewall programs. See here for a list.
I'm not sure why NOD32's Internet Monitor affects a DESKTOP search. But I can't use it as long as I'm using my AV program of choice. Does this make sense to anyone? Because I can't figure it out.
BTW: this has been a known issue for a few months now.
DarkMantle I been bored, so I started a blog.
Windows built in search is shitty for finding content inside files, and Outlook is shitty at finding content inside emails.
.c and .h files I mentioned earlier. And, as I said in another response to this thread, I just tried searching my 700MB plus outlook mailbox.pst file, and it took 29 seconds to return a few thousand results.
Define shitty.
Windows built in search found the
Google did not index my outlook mailbox at all. Unless this is a new feature.
I should also mention that Outlook did not present me with any context sensitive ads. I guess GDS is great if you complain about the lack of advertisments embedded in your personal data.
So far, thats the only feature I see that it has. Ads. Aside "speed", and really, searching even a completely full 80 gig HDD by walking through every file/dir with a simple VBScript doesn't take more than a couple minutes.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Does it search inside mhtml files yet? I stopped using Google Desktop Search because of that limitation, has it changed?
So, what's it do? Why do I need it?
It is a very very fast search of all your files and emails. I use it extensively at work and not at all at home. Searching in Outlook is a joke compared to Google Search.
I think it's awesome that Google has provided this tool to us, and I hope that they release a OS X and Linux versions soon. However, I worry that we may see spyware use this search plugin architecture for, say, rapidly locating credit card information or bank statements...
Are are you just astrotilling the soil of FUD?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I'm hoping that there will be some ability to customize the searches somewhat further to allow for searching straight text files like .c, .h, or .php.
You can download a plugin that "enables Google Desktop Search to index any file type as a text file".
Windows also needs a plugin.
I thought at the very least, the search tools would have an automatic list of files to EXCLUDE.
Get rid of avi files and iso images (by default) and large archives, and I might actually find whats in front of me.
I hate NOT knowing whats missing, and its worse knowing there is a file right in front of me, but the search tool refuses to index it.
I made my own in the end, and it handles everything I can throw at it.
liqbase
Windows search is BAD. .c or .h files.
.htm, or .asp or .py?
,and scanning through the disc methodically looking inside each file. XP screwed with this.
Its absolutely terrible.
Inside the registry, every defined filetype must be associated with a scanning routine. There is no way to setup a default text scanner without overbloating your registry for every used filetype. Around the time when sp1 came out, MS released a patch for the search that fixes *some* of your filetypes - hence your ability to index
How does it handle files of other types -
Older windows searches might have been slow, but you KNEW it was doing something
I would rather sacrifice speed for accuracy.
liqbase
Tum tee tumm
Now I look like a plonker!
I went and relooked at the problem, and apparantly theres a fix (put in place well after I initially made my assertions about it..)
Its not a simple one click thing, but it may work.
Heres a link
I can't actually confirm if this works as expected yet (very unclean bloated registry), but if it does, then it will be easier.
liqbase
You might not need it, at all. But it's been very handy for my parents and grandparents, who haven't quite figured out folders and files. They can easily get to any Word document they want simply by remembering a key name, etc. They love it. Of course, you and me have different, lesser, uses for it. I use Beagle (not Google Desktop Search, but similar) to find stuff. If I forget to write down, say... Aaron's phone number, I can punch in "Aaron phone" and it'll find either the Gaim log of whoever told it to me or the email of whoever emailed it to me. Whether the memory cost is worth it to you... that's your choice.
For example: I did a GDS search for the name of a server I was building last week.
Bam. I got every document I had about that server. The online change requests. The service requests to site engineering. The operational handbook I wrote. The inventory spreadsheet.
Wow. That was pretty cool.
I also found out that while GDS doesn't index networked drives/shares, it *will* include documents on the network that you have opened in its search results. That was pretty good too.
It's also useful on a couple of our intranet sites. Just this morning I had to find a change request for a server - using the search mechanism of our change system is difficult at best - but because I could search it in Google, it came up right away.
Photography, technology, and my dog Scout - http://mattstratton.com
Google's privacy policies state that:
1.) Any information on you is fair game.
2.) They will happily turn over any information they have on you at any government request.
3.) Your Gmail may reside on their servers indefinitely, even after you delete it. This may also be "indexed" on their servers and the contents read at any time.
Since you claim that this information is in Google's privacy policy, can you provide a link?
Let me quote first from Google's deskbar privacy policy http://desktop.google.com/privacypolicy.html/
Your computer's content is not made accessible to Google or anyone else without your explicit permission.
Now let me quote from Google's gmail privacy policy http://gmail.google.com/gmail/help/privacy.html/
Because we keep back-up copies of data for the purposes of recovery from errors or system failure, residual copies of email may remain on our systems for some time, even after you have deleted messages from your mailbox or after the termination of your account. Google employees do not access the content of any mailboxes unless you specifically request them to do so (for example, if you are having technical difficulties accessing your account) or if required by law, to maintain our system, or to protect Google or the public.
Now feel free to link to the privacy policy of any company in the USA that claims to protect your privacy even after martial law is declared and claims that your data is deleted from their servers the instant you hit delete.
There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
Google employees do not access the content of any mailboxes unless you specifically request them to do so (for example, if you are having technical difficulties accessing your account) or if required by law, to maintain our system, or to protect Google or the public.
That's awesome. Not only do they provide search services, Google is also a superhero, protecting the public from evil as we sleep.
What can't Google do?
The other day someone gave me their cell number on AIM. A couple days later I needed to find it--I only remembered the area code, so I typed that in my Firefox search bar and Google Desktop inserted my AIM chat at the top of the results page...easy.
It's free AIM logging for someone who doesn't like Trillian or DeadAIM or etc for one.
Now it does Firefox history too.
Also its great for searching through the monstrosity that is my development folder--if you remember a scrap of code, Google will find it in a second...the need for Windows' Start->Search just really doesn't exist anymore.
think of the crazy shit you've searched for late on a Saturday night
;)
The only thing I search for on a sat. night is for the cutest girl in the club/bar where I'm at and I doubt google has that "query" saved somewhere...
The way to corrupt a youth is to teach him to hold in higher value them who think alike than those who think differently
Why doesn't it also search GMail? That would be a real benefit. Or does it already and i just don't see this listed anywhere?
Kyle
http://www.unlogikal.net/
a) The data on your hard disk isn't encrypted so having an index encrypted doesn't buy you any real security.
b) Even if it was encrypted, the decryption key would have to also be on your computer for Google Desktop to use it anyway so would be fairly easily snarfable by someone who had enough access to get at the index.
c) Google Desktop runs as an http server on localhost. Anyone with enough access to get to the index could more easily query the Google interface directly for whatever they are interested in.
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
The parent wanted to know what the features are. So do I. I want to know why I should use it.
All you have to say is "MSFT STUFF IS SHIT@!!!!! Googal DA R0X!!!"
You haven't made one salient point. Just another slashbot toeing the "All MSS Stuf is tah suck!!1!!" line. I fucking cant stand sycophants. Go away, don't come back until you can form your own opinions.
Your answer to the question is basically: "I dunno"
So shut the fuck up.
Not to mention their search results have sucked since 2003, but that's totally beside the point.
Any better engines around then ? I do see that Google gets more and more polluted ; But I haven't heard of any good alternatives around.
Don't ask us why its cool if you can't figure it out.
You're paranoid.
You're fucking paranoid.
How, precisely, do you get from "If you like [Microsoft's search functions], use them. . . . Would it end me to not have [Google's product]? No." to "MSFT STUFF IS SHIT@!!!!! Googal DA R0X!!!"?
I can't quite work out whether you're trolling, or whether you genuinely, in good faith, reply to posts you blatantly haven't read.
Who cares? Mac OS X Mail.app does this already. It's just like iTunes.
Why use the Google Desktop search when the new Copernic Desktop Search v1.5 beta has so much more?
.php, .c, .h, .) is simple with Copernic Desktop Search (even v1.2) while it is a downloadable add-on in Google.
Comparisons:
1) Searching text files (.java,
2) Music/Video/Images are both searchable and *viewable/watchable/hearable* from within CDS while it was just added in a limited capacity in GDS.
3) Thunderbird and Eudora both searchable in CDS and Thunderbird just added in GDS.
4) Smart indexing of *network drives* in CDS 1.5 beta is totally awesome. It is amazing to see what you have instant access to on your corporate network in terms of internally searchable code files and business docs.
5) CDS 1.5 beta searches iTunes, QuickTime and OGG information (artist, album, etc) while GDS is likely more limited.
6) CDS 1.5 has targeted search (search email first, or files first, etc.) while GDS has been known to choose it's own path.
7) The GDS killer IMHO - preview of every major filetype is within the actual CDS search...like DOC, XLS, PPT, HTM, Email, code files and also highlighting search terms in different colors showing their context.
Prove me wrong after you download it and try it (for free of course).
This sig donated to Pater. Long live
Then stop complaining and instead give at least one example of a search engine that sets no cookies and is better than Google.
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
What is cool is that they use free software:
C:\Archivos de programa\Google\Google Desktop Search>pdftohtml.exe
pdftohtml version 0.33a http://pdftohtml.sourceforge.net/
Copyright 1999-2002 Gueorgui Ovtcharov and Rainer Dorsch
based on Xpdf version 2.03
Copyright 1996-2003 Glyph & Cog, LLC
Also, in the directory you'll find this:
aa ### WARNING - Do not
ab ### move or delete these
ac ### files - your system
ad ### may stop working
af ### To uninstall use
ag ### Add-Remove programs
ah ### in the control panel
ai ### or run
ak ### GoogleDesktopSearchSetup.exe -uninstall
Those are FILE NAMES. They're so when you open the directory you see the "message". Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. Those guys know what are doing.
I'm very familiar with google watch and I've actually quoted the very same exerpt that you have but what do you think this proves? I can link dozen's of pages that claim creationism has been scientifically proven and anything else that I'd like to prove. You said:
"Google's privacy policies state that:
1.) Any information on you is fair game.
2.) They will happily turn over any information they have on you at any government request.
3.) Your Gmail may reside on their servers indefinitely, even after you delete it. This may also be "indexed" on their servers and the contents read at any time."
Someone asked you to show them where google's privacy policy makes these claims and then you post from googlewatch.org That's almost (well not really but you get the point) like quoting Microsoft on Linux's total cost of ownership
http://nyamenation.org/
I was wrong! It's so fast. Get it, you'll never use windows search again.
"Physics is to math as sex is to masturbation." -R. Feynman
Google desktop search is hardly a unique product. There are lots of them, Yahoo, Microsoft and others have them too. I've tried them all. The best one is actually from Microsoft. http://toolbar.msn.com/
I'm being serious. Tell me something neat and impressive that I can make it do, so I too can start preaching the genious of Google.
.c or .h as text to index them?
.cpp perfectly fine.
* It has automatic IM logging and fast searching among logs. I used to save all my chats in a folder and use Windows file find to find stuff. I still save the chats, but I use GDS to search the text (and pull up the original if necessary).
* It finds most common file types (read: MS Office, and whatever you write a plugin for) and can search within them, quickly. It searches all recognized file types in all parts of the hard drive within insignificant time.
I tried searching, for example, for some phrases that I know are in some sourcecode files I have. It didn't find the files containing the code. I guess it doesnt recognize
It recognizes
Google desktop search sends search results to google before being displayed on your machine.
Where are all the serious tin-foil-hatters when we REALLY need them?
It does. Upgrade to Windows so you can install the software you so vigorously defend.
(Or wait until Google announces Desktop Search for Linux BETA in 2012, the Year of Linux on the Desktop.)
And also, don't forget the thing I like the most about Google Desktop: the cache. You can find text in text files you deleted, or accidentally wrote over... it's very handy.
It recognizes .cpp perfectly fine.
Oh yeah, and that screenshot is from an older beta. I haven't upgraded yet to 1.0.
Turn off cookies for Google You can run Google with cookies turned off for that site. That way they can keep no more information about you than the IP address you call in from. If you turn off cookies you can't login to Gmail or Orkut but that's a small price to pay for privacy. This tells you that they collect information on your use of Google, Gmail and Orkut and that should make people think twice.
I've been playing with those desktop search engines last week.
I used to keep most stuff on my server and have the indexing server + a lot of IFilters index it all, and it was searcheable by a webpage. Not exactly the perfect solution, but so far, none of the desktop search tools have really been much better.
The only one (which is the worst overall IMHO and MS owned) who uses IFilter is the MSN junk (you couldn't pay me enough to install anything that says "MSN" on my PC anyways).
GDS and Copernic have very limited file type support (it's getting better, but why not make use of alerady installed 3rd party IFilters, as they already use the indexing service already? Well, at least GDS does). Addons for GDS/Copernic may help with filetype support later on, but knowing that software "is extendable" isn't exactly helping me right now.
And then, with these, as I keep my stuff mostly centralized (on server, access with mapped drives, easier to backup that way too), for each PC I have, I'd have to make the desktop search tool index many many gigs worth of data over the network. So all PCs generate hundreds of gigs of network traffic to do poor indexing. That's a lot of overhead for all PCs constantly updating their indexes too. Plus, the software has to be installed manually on all of them (I believe that some need you to be an admin to use them as well). And some are meant for single user only.
I still can't search inside a huge portion of my files (limited file type support), I stil can't do searches with any kind of special characters (brackets and stuff... things like you wish you could use even on google and that only get misinterpreted or stripped off).
My web page using the indexing server needs nothing installed on any PC, works for anybody, no huge network traffic, works for most file types, is still accessible when I'm away (it's a web page) as long as I got i'net access (can also manage files and all remotely), and the search page has some options to also search some SQL tables - a thing that no other tool does.
These desktop search tools may not be all bad, but they still have a LONG way to go. Right now, they don't fix any of my immediate issues, in fact, it's still worse than my old solution (for me at least). Not sure exactly how WinFS will change this, but it could definately help.
///<sig
They do now. :)
I trust google-watch even less than google.
Here's why.
that really links to a page
Maybe Google's toolbar should be known as "Screw-ware".
It uploads your datamined hard drive's details to them so they can better screw you with their marketing department.
It's the software that you keep paying for, and don't even realize you're bending over.
Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
but the built in search already does that.
... and the search interface is so user friendly, too)
because it doesn't have the world's most *@#!* irritating dog built in, maybe?
(my comp is a little old, and everything grinds to a halt every time I need to search for something and that damn dog turns up
yes, I have rage against the Windows Search Dog >:(
Timothy forgot about all of the slashdot readers who don't use windows. This is Windows-only. The donwload site does tell you in very small print.
the clock on the wall says 4 til 7
The various bits about governmental requests are no doubt there because, whether or not Google notifies you of the fact, they would be required to make such disclosures under US law (see the PATRIOT Act among others). That they're telling you this and others are not is an indication that other companies would rather not disclose it for fear you might be suspicious of them. Google is trying to be as up-front with you as they can, and they're telling you "we will protect you as best we can, but sometimes that ability may be taken out of our hands by current US law".
As far as the data retention disclosures, that's for technological reasons. It is not ever possible to guarantee data has been destroyed until you've physically destroyed the disk (sometimes not even then). Again, this boils down to Google saying "just because you delete a message, file or whatever, does not mean that traces of it don't still exist; under certain circumstances we may be required by law to recover those traces or allow them to be recovered by others." It's called forensic data retrieval, and it's used all the time to recover potentially-incriminating deleted files from hard drives. Others are still required to do this, they just don't tell you that. Surely you're not suggesting that every time you delete a file, Google go out and copy all the other files on that disk off to another one, then "delete" your files by slagging the disk with a thermite grenade? As paranoid as I am about my data, I'm just not that unrealistic about it.
As to the "ex-CIA guy", #1: cite a source, #2, even assuming it's absolutely true, do you have any idea how many people are running around in the IT industry with classified-data clearances? At one company I worked at in 2001, at least four of the eight people on my team had immediately previously held TS/SCI or better clearance. DoD lifestyle polygraph, the whole bit. We weren't doing anything remotely involving any intelligence agencies, it was just the vagaries of the pool of developers with the skills the company needed, and the location (DC suburbs of Northern Virginia). You can't swing a dead cat within 100 miles of the DC Beltway without hitting somebody who holds at least a "blue-dot" clearance.
The cookie is nothing all that sinister either, though I do wish Google gave me the option to not have it carry over from Gmail to Google Groups. The expiration date I'm sure looks very familiar to anybody with more than a passing familiarity with time_t.
Don't look too hard for evil that isn't there.
-- Old Man Kensey
Do you use email? I search through 4 900+ MB .pst files in seconds.
Conformity is the jailer of freedom and enemy of growth. -JFK
Google makes a network search appliance that may solve this little dilemma for you.
You can never go home again... but I guess you can shop there.
They've discovered our super-secret technique for extending Firefox!
--
the strongest word is still the word "free"
Don't support Openoffice.org. I mean how hard can it be to implement searching in an open XML format?
I won't use it until they do.
It is one thing to not be able to do a substring search on the file contents, but not even partial matches for the filename? Google Desktop is nowhere near as good a search tool as Yahoo Desktop. I have tried Google, Copernic and Yahoo Desktops and Yahoo has the best by far. Google is kinda nice because it runs in your browser, but it has such limited features compared with the others. I can't search using wildcards and substrings, so it is not a suitable replacement for the built in search in windows, which is kind of the point. Copernic wasn't bad as far as features go but it seems somewhat slow and unstable to me compared to Yahoo. Copernic 1.5 had trouble and crashed when trying to preview very large (several MB) text files. I guess I should be praising X1 beacuse that is who Yahoo licensed the search tech from. The really nice thing about Yahoo (X1) search is it finds files very quickly as you type. You can even specify on substring in a path, another in type and then a string in the general search field and it will use all of them as keywords in those areas to filter the search. Again all theses fields work as you type. Also you can tell it to index everything, all files everywhere, even binary. It will index any printable ASCII stored in those binaries. So no worries about will it index some strange extension. Sure, the GDS interface is elegant, but just not powerful enough to replace the windows search. After I installed Yahoo Desktop, I haven't had to open up that lame windows search with the dog at all.
it broke my firefox and most of the time IE too. Still should be beta i guess.
man i need to go back to apple.
- An email (and reply) I sent to the author asking about the API.
- A Java source file that I wrote that uses YlqLib.
- An email about an MS Exchange public folder created to discuss YlqLib
- A Word doc written as a requirements doc for YlqLib.
- A PDF of the YlqLib Programmer's Guide (intended for our customers.)
- The HTML javadoc page for YlqLib
There's lots more actually, but I thought this was pretty impressive. Desktop Search is very useful for me, especially at work. There are still several improvements I would like to see in it, such as being able to specify exactly what folders are indexed, and better chat support (plugins will probably handle this.)There is little need for a GDS version for Mac OS X since with the release of Mac OS 10.4 system wide content indexing will be built into the system via the Spotlight functionality.
Cool. Basically everything but the file you were looking for!
So it works just like Google.com!
I did a search for a library that was preventing stuff from compiling, and I got:
- a bunch of forum posts from other linux users who couldnt get it to compile.
- Portage links to the broken library in question. (of course it lists every single mirror on the planet, 4 or 5 pages worth)
- A bunch of porn/scam sites.
- A bunch of scam ebay redirect sites.
- A whole bunch of advertisements for various consulting firms.
Neat!
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Just thought everyone should know.
No Linux or OS X support. Lame. :-)
Scientifically PROVEN? Perhaps not. Scientifically supported, yes.
Forget GDS. What you want is Lookout -- a free tool that indexes and searches Outlook PSTs in no time flat.
It actually makes Outlook almost usable! Which is saying something.
Read my blog.
When someone comes up and says "I couldnt find an e-mail you sent on the subject"
couple seconds later I have their e-mail up because GDS makes it easy to do the search. The next thing they do is need to add searching by date because their are some work related items that happen 2-3 times per week, and finding out what you said 5 months ago can be a real hassle, even with GDS.
If you don't vote, you don't matter, so don't waste your time telling me your opinion
It runs on localhost, 127.0.0.1, not whatever public IP address your PC may have.
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
Ding ding ding! We have a loser!
It is noticable that there are betas versions in Chinese Traditional, Simplified, and Korean.
This is really odd, since normally languages like French and German appear first.
GDS might be limited but it just came out of beta and has more features but also allows the use of plug-ins. Since this is just new not many people are aware or had time to implement them. I think with time and the right plug-ins you will be able to customise how GDS works on your system. I also like how you can pretty much use any language to make queries to the search for your own application and any COM supported language to make plug-ins. This in turn opens up the platform for a wide range of things. There are so many different implementations of Desktop Search and none of them are wrong. Just find the one that works best for you. Google is simply using its own search technology at cracking the Desktop Search. Soon all the OS's will have it, Windows with its WinFS and Mac with its Spotlight and the Linux community are working on their own implementations like Beagle and Evidence. The day of Desktop Search is coming and all are open to some sort of privacy and exploit vulnerbilities but thats with any new product in this day and age.
I hit that eternal beta today looking for a Dr Who
video. never did get there. What they have done to the news makes one long for the like of tin.
All I ended up with were a couple of snotty responses from morons.org. At least they had some self awareness.
That's cockamamy bullshit about Eudora. The search isn't fast, but it doesn't crash Eudora. I have to maintain several desktops with 4GB+ of data in Eudora and the searches never crash. Slower than an indexed search, yes, but not any of this crash business.
they have already done that.
/.)
read the "what's new" or whatever,
it's been like that for a week.
(expect a story in tomorrow's
-- Avishalom is usually vish
Something written by a guy from Google disagrees with criticism of Google? +5, mods!
Attack the messenger instead of the message. I notice no discussion of the cookie, the IP tracking, and so on.
Then probably you don't know how to perform searches.
...and btw, did anybody notice how hard is to find something useful when performing searches related to the MS products? They all have such common names it becomes difficult finding words useful to the search. Some of them are EXCLUDED from searches as stopwords! :-) )
If the terms you use are not utterly common at least 2 or 3 relevant links show up in the first page of the result of a google search.
If they don't, change the terms a bit.
If they still don't show up (not even on googlegroups) then probably the damn thing is not on the internet.
That's my experience with google.
(yes, I was searching suff on "COM" recently... and let's not forget "NET"
Ciao, Renato
Clever signature text goes here.
At work we have mailbox limits, so after a while stuff gets archived off out of the main Outlook pst file into an archive. I have years worth of emails becuase you never know when you will need one.
I also have an old archive.pst from a previous machine. GDS will search them all, at once, far, far faster than Outlook can. It has been very very useful for me at work.
I haven't updated it in a while but Nariva http://nariva.sf.net/ is a java-based open-source desktop search engine I wrote and use. I'm the only one working on it, so it's going a bit slow, but it works for me.
Regards,
Christopher.
> What, exactly does it do? Find files by name? I already have a tool to do that.
What tool? Windows has something built in, but it will take half an hour to find the file but Google Desktop Search can do it in a few milliseconds.
> Tell me something neat and impressive that I can make it do,
Search your entire email in 20ms.
> I tried searching, for example, for some phrases that I know are in
> some sourcecode files I have. It didn't find the files containing the code.
You were using a BETA. Ever heard that word before? The new version searches anything you want if you install the "any file plugin".
> If found stuff in a word doc that i made just to test it, but the built
> in search already does that.
You can search word document you already have open, but if you have 100 word documents, it will take several minutes if not hours to search inside them for the phrase you are after. You do NOT have a tool which can search them in a sensible amount of time.
> So, what's it do? Why do I need it? Why does this need to be
> integrated into every app on my desktop?
If you install things that you don't even know what they do, your computer must be so full of crap that I'm surprised you can find anything without Google Desktop!
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Google Acquires Keyhole Corp
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - October 27, 2004 - Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG) today announced it acquired Keyhole Corp., a Mountain View, Calif.-based digital mapping company.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
"With Keyhole, you can fly like a superhero from your computer at home to a street corner somewhere else in the world - or find a local hospital, map a road trip or measure the distance between two points," said Jonathan Rosenberg, vice president, Product Management. "This acquisition gives Google users a powerful new search tool, enabling users to view 3D images of any place on earth as well as tap a rich database of roads, businesses and many other points of interest. Keyhole is a valuable addition to Google's efforts to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful."
With an Internet connection, users enter an address or other location information and Keyhole's software accesses the database and takes them to a digital image of that location on their computer screen. The interactive software then gives users many options, including the ability to zoom in from space-level to street-level, tilt and rotate the view or search for other information such as hotels, parks, ATMs or subways. Unlike traditional mapping technologies, Keyhole creates a dynamic 3D interface for geographic information.
Keyhole's technology combines a multi-terabyte database of mapping information and images collected from satellites and airplanes with easy-to-use software.
Google also announced, effective immediately, a price reduction for Keyhole 2 LT from $69.95 to $29.95.
Keyhole was founded in 2001. Keyhole customers include consumers, large and small businesses and public agencies. Current Keyhole users will benefit from the expanded resources and operational scale made possible by the integration into Google. Their service will continue uninterrupted.
For a free, seven-day trial of Keyhole, please go to www.keyhole.com.
"Something that crashes Eudora "
Has never crashed my Eudora and as GDS doesn't search Eudora mail it doesn't help.
I downloaded GDS when it came out, had it on my machine for about a week then uninstalled it as it didn't seem to offer any functionality I needed.
"I deny nothing, but doubt everything." Lord Byron
I submit that it is not possible to "Upgrade" to Windows.
That said, I run Windows at work, I'll see what Google Desktop is doing. Sorry for getting that wrong.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley