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Google Desktop 2 Live

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the out-the-door dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Combining desktop search and the Google Sidebar, Google Desktop 2 is now available for download. Dozens of new third-party sidebar panels are now available, Google said. Also launched was Google Desktop for Enterprise (free)."

9 of 275 comments (clear)

  1. Google (tm) Air by MandoSKippy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Breath fresh Google Air (tm) as you drive you your Google (tm) Car will sipping on your Google(tm) latte while... And we are worried about Microsoft?

    1. Re:Google (tm) Air by Omestes · · Score: 3, Insightful

      What nasty thing has Google done, yet?

      I LIKE Google, and don't see how this service can make them suddenly evil? Look, we made a desktop search app, and a bunch of other really neat gagdets! And all we ask of you is to look at an ad that might actually be interested from time to time! That sounds pretty vile, much more vile than Microsoft.

      I guess, though, unlike most /monkeys I need an actual reason to hate a company, not just the fact that they are big, and most people use them. MS does nasty things, Google hasn't yet, and that is enough for me.

      --
      A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government. -edward abbey
    2. Re:Google (tm) Air by osbjmg · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I'm down with google too.. but what about the other big company out there (Uncle Sam) asking google for all these nicely documented users, er - citizens? They may be forced to hand over information that the government hasn't been able to correlate. Google stores it all, they don't have a policy for deleting old data and that is the main problem for me anyway.

    3. Re:Google (tm) Air by mhale2243 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The fundamental reason I like Google and dislike Microsoft is that I like being a Google customer their stuff works well for me. Microsoft on the other hand frequently frustrates me.

      You could say apples and oranges, Google only makes simple little search engines, while Microsoft makes operating systems and office suites. However it is possible for any company to release a product that they don't sufficiently understand no matter what the size. Microsoft simply bit off too much to maintain greatness, while Google has steadily build upon what they know how to do best. That is why I am excited about Microsoft's plan to build Singularity from scratch. Maybe they will start small and build on success instead of trying to be the world.

    4. Re:Google (tm) Air by simong_oz · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Google is into search technology, Microsoft is into everything profitable in the desktop market.

      Google is a company, they exist to make profit for their shareholders.
      Microsoft is a company, they exist to make profit for their shareholders.

      They may use different strategies to make the profit, but to think otherwise is being naive IMO.

      --
      "Because it's there." - George Mallory, when asked why he wanted to climb Mt Everest, March 18, 1923 (New York Times)
  2. Not Exactly Desktop Yet by superpulpsicle · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It has a couple functions but to call it a desktop is way too early. The question is when will Google stop riding the bear. "Requires Windows XP or Windows 2000 SP 3+".

  3. So what? by markusbkoch · · Score: 4, Insightful

    When are people going to understand that Google is a business just like any other?

    Being a business, they must focus on the return over their investment, which is much faster achieved when you develop something for the masses. Last time I checked, the masses were running Windows, not Linux or any other open source OS.

    And BTW, they WILL do evil if that makes stocks go up!

  4. Didn't like it by Mr_Silver · · Score: 3, Insightful
    I tried Google Desktop about 3 months ago and didn't like it. One problem was that I had little use for the sidebar which just took up a load of desktop space. The subscribing to every pages RSS feed sounds like a nice idea until you end up with 3000 subscriptions of which 30+ update every single time the feed is pulled.

    But the major problem for me was that *gasp* the searching wasn't very good. No seriously. Here's why:

    1. If you move a file from one location to another, it can take weeks before GDS re-indexes both areas and realises that its moved. During this time you either get pointers to the wrong location or (only slightly better) two entries showing the old location and the new location.
    2. Ditto for email. I move emails from my Outlook inbox into folders according to project. Weeks later, I still can't find the email because GDS claims its still in the inbox (but cannot open it).
    3. When GDS cannot open an indexed file because it no longer exists, GDS doesn't do the sensible thing and remove the database entry so that it no longer appears in subsequent searches. In fact, in an ideal world, GDS should check the existence of all the files before it lists them to you.
    4. Without doing some convoluted stuff, you can't force GDS to re-index everything again. This is essential after a couple of weeks because your index is too inaccurate to be any use.
    5. You can't tell GDS to re-index certain things (email, certain folders) more frequently because they change more often.
    6. Hell, you can't increase the time GDS re-indexes full stop.

    In the end I gave up and installed Copernic which is far better. It is most definitely not perfect, for example, it can't just search everything (you have to specify files, emails, contacts etc.), the toolbar search isn't as useful as Google's (you can't just type something and your results start to appear in a menu), the IE and Firefox plugins don't actually search your desktop (only the web) and that there is no integrated search bar for Outlook (I do miss this).

    However (and this is the big one), it re-index's far quicker and more often than Google and I can set it to re-index certain things (like my email) once every day which means that my results are always correct.

    It wouldn't take much that GDS would need to change for me to revert back because I like the integrated search in Outlook and the toolbar - but the database inaccuracy means that its next to useless for the way I work.

    --
    Avantslash - View Slashdot cleanly on your mobile phone.
  5. Google Evil ? by andr386 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I wish you were right about Google...

    More and more all my private life is scanned by google.
    Google knows everything about me.
    Via gmail they know who are my friends, where I work, what I do, ... everything.
    Via google search history they can even gather more informations, they can even guess when I was in front of my computer.

    I don't wanna draw a dark picture, but they are gaining more and more access to our private life. What do they do whith all the data they collect ? Targeting advertisement ?
    I really hope they have the best intentions and they only do that !
    Because If a I were the CIA investigating somebody, google would be the first place to go to retrieve informations.