Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

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)."

23 of 275 comments (clear)

  1. On my Mac right now... by MadChicken · · Score: 3, Funny

    Can I insall it vicariously?

    Anyone?

    --
    SYS 64738 NO CARRIER
    1. Re:On my Mac right now... by anti-trojan · · Score: 3, Interesting

      That's purely logical. They are bombarding people with Google apps running on Windows (Google Talk, Gmail notifier, Google Desktop, soon a Google Browser and Google Office Applications). You are getting used to them.

      Next year when they say "you are using all Google-applications on your Windows anyway. Why don't you just download our GoogleOS preloaded with those applications (and more) and save money instead of paying to Microsoft", more people will say "sure, why not."

      --
      Virus infects both Windows and Linux!
    2. Re:On my Mac right now... by ForumTroll · · Score: 4, Funny

      More speculation about a GoogleOS....

      Google Fanboy: They made an email app, a desktop search bar and an IM client, HOW COULD THEY NOT BE MAKING AN OS????

      --
      "A Lisp programmer knows the value of everything, but the cost of nothing." - Alan Perlis
    3. Re:On my Mac right now... by zephc · · Score: 3, Funny

      Not til they port emacs, THEN it will be an OS

      *ahem*

      --
      "I would say that 99 per cent of what my father has written about his own life is false." - L. Ron Hubbard Jr.
    4. Re:On my Mac right now... by emc · · Score: 3, Funny

      Not til they port emacs, THEN it will be an POS

      I fixed that for you.

      You can thank me later.

  2. 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)
  3. Slick... very slick by lamasquerade · · Score: 4, Informative

    I installed the original Desktop search, but since moving computers hadn't bothered to reinstall. I have just installed this new version and it is one very slick little app. I don't usually like giving up screen real-estate but I decided to try the sidebar and so far I'm impressed. I can see a lot I'll be able to use, not least the scratch pad instead of opening up notepad for one-liners. The to-do list is cool too - I know it sounds so simple, but my workload comes from two service desk queues, plus other projects, plus ad-hoc email requests - and I think just jotting down a few tasks to get done today in the morning might help organise things for the day rather than flitting about between tasks all day.

    As I said, some simple tools, but helpful, and well organised. As for the desktop search itself, we can now specify network drives to index which is really cool for the dis-organised mess of nested folders that is my corporate drive. Gmail search can't get through my firewall unfortunately. The News search is great, it seems to have figured out my habits from history - I haven't visited any news sites except slashdot since installing and it's already got some new stories from my favourite sites... Plus some seemingly random interesting maps and blogs... no doubt these will cancel out any gains to my productivity made by ease of finding things:)

    So all in all, first impression is a good one.

    btw, does anyone know a way to create a firefox keyword to search the with this? It seems to need a session id to work, but maybe there's a way round?

    --

    // It had been Fat's delusion for years that he could help people. --Philip K. Dick, Valis

    1. Re:Slick... very slick by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      btw, does anyone know a way to create a firefox keyword to search the with this? It seems to need a session id to work, but maybe there's a way round?

      I just made a GDS "Quick Search" for Firefox. Here's what I did:
      1) Do a blank search with GDS in Firefox.
      2) Bookmark it and open up its properties page.
      3) The URL should look something like this --> http://127.0.0.1:4664/search&s=FGJsWAKx2-kWjzxnpdJ wgjkb5lU?q=&ie=UTF-8&btnG=Search
      4) Insert a "%s" after the "q=" in the URL.
      5) Enter something memorable in the Keyword box (I used "gd")
      6) Look here for clarification --> http://filebox.vt.edu/s/seiglert/images/clipboard0 1.jpg
      Now, whenever you want to search for something on your desktop in Firefox, just go to the Address bar, and type "gd" and whatever you want to search for! :-D

      --Acercanto

  4. Uh-oh Google farted! by 0xdeaddead · · Score: 4, Funny
    Keep those press release comming! If it ain't SCO, SCOX, its gotta be Google!

    I needs my fix already!

    Now if google would do something with Natilie Portman.........

  5. 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+".

  6. Re:Uh, hasn't it been out since August? by aaza · · Score: 3, Funny
    Yeah, but apparantly it came out of "beta" status now.

    Wait, are you saying that something Google released is out of beta?

    (No I didn't read the article, and I find it amusing that almost nothing from Google ever makes it out of beta)

    --
    In theory there is no difference between theory and practice.
    In practice, however, there is.
  7. Stock Price by kmartshopper · · Score: 5, Funny

    You would think that they would have put up a screenshot of the sidebar where their stock was up rather than down $4.17.

  8. No. Wake me up when it does by vik · · Score: 3, Interesting

    You never know, Beagle might be usable before Google get their desktop going on Linux. But the Beagle keeps chewing up my memory, so I'm dropping back to using x-friend even though it's not Open Source.

    If anyone has any better alternatives for us Linux bunnies, do tell the world!

    Vik :v)

  9. Does anyone actually USE Google Desktop? by rinkjustice · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I've installed every version of google desktop since inception, hoping every time that I'll find use for it. But I never do. It just sits there on my desktop, taking up real estate and looking fugly.

    Other than replacing XP's pathetic search feature, it's really alot of nothing.

    --
    SEO Copywriter. Just Say ON
    1. Re:Does anyone actually USE Google Desktop? by MBCook · · Score: 4, Informative
      I've installed it on all the family Windows boxes, and it is helpful once in a while at finding documents (my parents are permanently unorganized in file structure). The ability of search your web history is neat, I'd probably use that a lot.

      That said, I spend almost all my time on my Mac, so I have Spotlight.

      I LOVE Spotlight.

      With a quick key combination (based on keyboard placement, it would be like Alt-Space in the windows world) and then just type in stuff. The name of a document. A person's name. The name of an appointment. The name of a bookmark. The name of a folder. Some text in a document that I can't remember the name of. The name of a function in one of my programming projects (then just chose the header file it finds). It is fantastic. I even use it to launch programs (although I would prefer a version of the Run command in Windows, that is the one thing I miss). I know about Quicksilver and such but Spotlight works well enough for this.

      It does seem to have gotten faster with the 10.4.3 update as well. Before sometimes I could type something in and it would take 15+ seconds for the first result to show up (this is a 1.677 GHz PB with 1GB of RAM), now the first results are always there in under a second (note, internal hard drive only; I don't know how it'd deal with multiple 800GB volumes some people use).

      If you get Google Desktop and start using it, I think you'll love it (note: I've turned off the sidebar, just seems annoying to me). All it needs is a key command (Win-G maybe?) to launch it (note: might exist, haven't looked). While not as convenient as Spotlight (Google Desktop pulls up a web browser then you have to click, with spotlight I can use arrow keys, return, and various key combos), it will still be a major boon to you.

      Now I'm a VERY organized person, and I still am. But now I can find that document by typing a few letters, instead of opening a few folders.

      And if you accidently save something to the wrong place, it can be a GODSEND in finding it.

      --
      Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
  10. 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!

  11. Scripting Plug-ins with Javascript - the new VBA by boozewah · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I installed the original Google Desktop Search when it first came out. The application was not bad, it just crashed my computer anytime I left it up overnight. After I narrowed the number of folders it indexed the crashes stopped and I now use it alot. I have found it very useful and am not annoyed by the sliver of screen space it takes up on the right side monitor. It seems the newest version is a little more stable and the new maps plugin is nice since I am a map junkie.
              The real neat capability is the ability they give you to write plug-ins now in javascript. I have only been playing around a little so far but it seems like Google is trying to turn Javascript into the new VBA! I was very interested in creating a Google Desktop Plug-in before they added the new Javascript programming capabilties, but I was going to need Visual Studio 2003 and navigate through Visual C++.net. In just playing around the Javascript it seems both simple yet powerful enough to get done what I want. The comparison to VBA is not meant to be a put down. Between the Google Maps API and the Sidebar API for Google Desktop I never though I would be using Javascript so much.

  12. 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.
  13. 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.