Google Releases Desktop Search Tool

[MarineCorps]

Google Inc. released a free tool today that lets people simultaneously search the Web and their personal computers for information, a move analysts described as a potential blow to rivals Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc. in the race to woo searchers and dominate the hottest area of online advertising.

Google's new "desktop search" software offers what Microsoft has been trying to develop for more than a year -- the ability to let people enter one search term and see files relevant to that topic from both their computers and the Web displayed together.


"This gives Google a huge first-mover advantage in desktop search," said Charlene Li, principal search analyst for Forrester Research, a market research firm. She predicted the tool would be especially popular with heavy computer users, who store many files on their machines and need help sifting through them.

"It's ironic that until now, it's been easier to search six billion documents on the Internet than it has been to find a single file on your hard drive," Li said.

Google's new software, available as a free download at http://desktop.google.com, not only indexes the full text of e-mail messages and word processing documents, but also gives people the option of creating a searchable archive of all Web pages they visit and all instant messages they send and receive with AOL software.

"The goal for the application was for it to behave like a photographic memory for your computer," said Marissa Mayer, Google's director of consumer Web products. "So in addition to being able to search all of the files on your computer, it also indexes the Web pages you have seen."

Mayer said Google's research shows that computer users want to find information swiftly, but they typically do not remember where they saw it, leading the company to develop a product that searches the Internet, e-mails, Instant Messages, and desktop files stored on a personal computer simultaneously.

The new Google product is the company's first major innovation since its initial public offering in August, when it sold shares to investors for $85-a-share. Yesterday, Google stock closed at $140.90, up $3.50.

Analysts who tested the software say it is simple and fast, partly because it operates the same way Google does on the World Wide Web, by creating an index of the files it finds in advance and then searching that index when someone enters a query. That makes it speedier than the approach used by the search tool built into Microsoft's Windows operating system, which does no indexing and must inspect the original files each time it gets a query.

Google's new product is "very, very good," said Danny Sullivan, editor of searchenginewatch.com, an online newsletter that tracks the search engine industry. Sullivan said he has been testing Google's search tool and found one of its most useful features to be the way that it stored a copy of all the pages he visited online and then made that personal Web surfing history available to him.

"One of the more compelling things to me is it improves your Web searching," said Sullivan. He said he previously had been skeptical of Microsoft's declared intention to offer people a unified searching ability, combining files found on the computer with documents from the Web. "This leaves me feeling that integrated search really is useful," he said.

Google's release of the product ahead of Microsoft poses a problem for the Redmond, Wash., software giant, Sullivan said, because the personal archiving capability likely will grow more valuable to users over time, making it harder to switch to another search engine product: "You may not want to give up that recorded history you have."


While Microsoft has been promising to develop and release a new search product that would make it faster for users to find information on their personal computers, the company has pushed back its timetable. Yesterday, Microsoft officials said they would have a new desktop search tool within a year.

"Our focus is on helping consumers get faster, cleaner and easier access to the information they want, not on what other companies are doing," said Justin Osmer, product manager for Microsoft's MSN division. "We plan to offer desktop search with updates to our existing service within the next year."

Microsoft already offers the Lookout Personal Search Tool, which facilitates searches for millions of computer users who use Microsoft Outlook. But the company does not have a way for computer users to simultaneously search desktop files and information on the Internet.

"Customers want search capabilities that help them access information no matter where it resides, across the Internet, their P.C., the intranet and e-mail," Osmer said. "This is a big challenge. . . . Microsoft and the rest of the industry have only scratched the surface on how search technology can help consumers."

Google's desktop search only works on computers running Windows, specifically Windows XP and Windows 2000, and indexes the full text of only certain documents, including those created in Microsoft's Outlook and Outlook Express e-mail programs, Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint. With other files, such as photographs and music, it simply indexes the names of files.

People who install the desktop software can run Google searches a number of different ways -- looking for files stored only on their computers, for files stored only on the Internet or for a mixture of both.

Google, which makes its money showing ads related to queries, said it plans to show no advertising when users search only for files on their local computers, at least not while the product is in its test or "beta" stage. However, Google will show ads on results pages when someone chooses to see results from both the Web and their computer together, according to Mayer.

The company is proceeding cautiously with regard to privacy, given the uproar over the issue created earlier this year when it introduced a its G-mail product, which placed ads beside e-mails.

Mayer said early testing of the product shows that most people will use it to search the Internet and their personal computers for information simultaneously, which will add to the number of Internet searches done through Google. "As a result, we will serve more Web results pages and more ads, and those ads have more chances of getting clicked on. So there will be incremental Web search revenue from this product," Mayer said.

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 is the most personal information Google has ever dealt with," Mayer said of the new desktop search technology. "We take user privacy and user trust very seriously. And we have throughout the entire development of this product."

To enable users to maintain the confidentiality of files on their personal computers, or to permit them to keep their Web surfing destinations a secret, the new desktop search tool lets people block it from archiving visits to specific Internet sites, or from accessing private or confidential information stored on a P.C. In addition, there is a 15-minute snooze bar that allows a user to temporarily turn the archiving feature off if, for example, someone wants to do online shopping for a family member or friend and keep it a secret.

Gary Price, a search specialist who runs a Web reference site called ResourceShelf.com, noted that the new archiving capability could raise privacy issues by making it easier for people to search and find material on other people's computers when they step away from their desks. That could be troubling in the workplace where people often leave their desks unattended, he said: "In a couple of minutes, people can search your entire computer and find anything in any one of your documents."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...04Oct14_2.html
Die M$ Die!!!!!

http://desktop.google.com/ For the DL. I love google.

[Jeratain]

Originally Posted by MarineCorps

Die M$ Die!!!!!

Here's an idea: Use Linux and stop complaining.

[MarineCorps]

Originally Posted by Jeratain

Here's an idea: Use Linux and stop complaining.

I have been thinking of that but I have no idea where to get and I am on dial up still.

[stormbind]

I'm not impressed, and I don't understand what the fuss is about.

How fast is it compared to other HDD search solutions?

[Jeratain]

Originally Posted by MarineCorps

I have been thinking of that but I have no idea where to get and I am on dial up still.

Pay $5 shipping and handling for a free copy of Mandrake.

[MarineCorps]

Originally Posted by Jeratain

Pay $5 shipping and handling for a free copy of Mandrake.

I found Mandrake but I didn't see anything about a free copy.

[stormbind]

Linux is overated. It's a very fast console (like MS-DOS) system, but when you load X Windows (the GUI engine) and then add an environment (i.e. KDE) it's a slow, bloated mess.

This is all because X Windows display system (aka X11 Protocol) was never designed for powering performance desktop applications. Instead, it was designed for network portability (i.e. displaying a server desktop on remote client PC).

One of the reasons X11 is slow, is because it has no native widgets (i.e. buttons, borders, etc.) and requires that such things be written for each application seperately.

This is why there are so many competing desktop environments (i.e. KDE, GNOME, CDE, ROX etc.) as each desktop environment creates widgets that hosted applications can use. It's all the extra layers stacked up, so at the end of the day, a Linux "desktop" PC is a huge pile of poorly designed concepts making it worse than Windows 95!!

Many realise that X11 needs to be abandoned, but that means abandoning all the desktop environments that run ontop of X11... and all the applications written for those environments... so it won't happen!

Putting desktops to one side, Linux is slower than WindowsXP when running OpenGL games. This is partly because most device drivers for Linux are inferior: many hardware details are trade secrets so the open source community cannot write drivers comparible in efficiency to the vendor-written closed source drivers released for Windows.

Add all of the above together, and you aren't missing much. I'm not fond of Windows, but Linux isn't a viable replacement. There are 50+ alternative operating systems (most of them free), and many are better than Linux for desktop computing.

[Dease]

Too bad it doesn't work with my old win98

EDIT:

Originally Posted by stormbind

I'm not impressed, and I don't understand what the fuss is about.

How fast is it compared to other HDD search solutions?

well from looking at the screent shots, it looks like it takes less than a second to do a scan

[Thrawn]

Originally Posted by stormbind

Putting desktops to one side, Linux is slower than WindowsXP when running OpenGL games.

Linux is not exactly meant to run games. It's mostly used for programming, thus, the console system is more suitable than a GUI.

[MarineCorps]

Originally Posted by Dease

well from looking at the screent shots, it looks like it takes less than a second to do a scan

It is very fast.

@Thrawn:damn.

[Sodapop]

Originally Posted by stormbind

Add all of the above together, and you aren't missing much. I'm not fond of Windows, but Linux isn't a viable replacement. There are 50+ alternative operating systems (most of them free), and many are better than Linux for desktop computing.

Name them.

I see BeOS, which is old and unsupported by anyone or anything (with no apps being ported there nowaday) and to a certain extent SkyOS (which has virtually no apps as well). But anyway, go ahead and name those 50+ OSes.

And I'll point out a few errors in your post as well. First, X11 is a protocol, just like HTTP. Second, Network transparency has nothing to do with the speed problems you mention. Third, The speed problems you're talking about are probably from XFree86, the X server that was the most widespread not long ago. It's been replaced by Xorg now, and it's much faster. Besides, there are other xserver that are blazingly fast. Fourth, widget drawing doesn't change mcuh about the speed. Frankly, on a fairly modern computer (>600Mhz), it doesn't make a difference. Take Mozilla as an exemple, it's all widget drawing, and it's not slower than IE. I don't know at which number I am now, but X11 is a perfectly well done protocol, and no one except a few lunatics want to change the protocol. They wanted to changed the bloated and old server. And finally, OpenGL games are as fast on Linux as on Windows provided the right drivers (example : http://www.anandtech.com/linux/showdoc.aspx?i=2241). nVidia does that, and the speed are about the same on both OS. Next time you want to write a post about Linux, verify your fact before spreading FUD like that.

Linux is not exactly meant to run games. It's mostly used for programming, thus, the console system is more suitable than a GUI.

When will people learn? Linux is only a kernel, no more and no less that that. And it does its job fine as a kernel. Linux can run whatever you throw at it as long as its made for it. And nowaday, Linux is not only used for programming (If it would only be for programming, I'm pretty sure there wouldn't be 3 different Office suite, about 10 different browsers and as much IM clients). Linux is as much for Desktop use as for any other use (Ok, games aren't there yet, but it's not because it's impossible to run them, it's most of the time because they're written on DirectX and not portable, or simply because the developpers don't make a Linux version. For those in DirectX, port them to OpenGL and make a Linux binary, you probably won't see a difference with the original game. For the already OpenGLed games, just make Linux binaries, and you won't see the difference again.).

[Thrawn]

I didn't say it was only for programming. I have a friend who would use it all the time if it wasn't for the fact that games don't really run on it that great. I know it's gui never used to be terribly friendly, but from what I know, it's been changing.

I also remember hearing about some group porting DirectX to Linux, although I can't remember where I heard this.

[DreadCthulhu]

I have been using the Google Desktop search tool, and it makes the search tool built into Windows seem like a slow pig. I type in a search term, and I get results in less than a second. Windows search takes forever to find anything.

[MarineCorps]

Originally Posted by Sodapop

(Ok, games aren't there yet, but it's not because it's impossible to run them, it's most of the time because they're written on DirectX and not portable, or simply because the developpers don't make a Linux version. For those in DirectX, .

Actually http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=93759 Just remembered that.

[Sodapop]

Originally Posted by Thrawn

I didn't say it was only for programming. I have a friend who would use it all the time if it wasn't for the fact that games don't really run on it that great. I know it's gui never used to be terribly friendly, but from what I know, it's been changing.

I also remember hearing about some group porting DirectX to Linux, although I can't remember where I heard this.

Porting DirectX to Linux is not possible in itself. Wine does it by reproducing the Windows API, but it's far from perfect. Other than, that, it's virtually impossible to port Direct X without having access to the source code. Not going to happen. Anyway, companies that want to develop for code portability use OpenGL instead of DirectX/3D.

Actually http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=93759 Just remembered that.

That's not porting the game. That's reproducing the windows API to run Windows binaries on Linux. But this is not the solution to Linux gaming. The solution is native games. To simplify things, Cedega (formerly WineX) and Wine could be compared to emulators (They're not, they're "compatibility layers"). Not a bad solution, but it has advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages :

Play Windows game now on Linux
Use you Windows apps in general on Linux (which is the objective of Wine)

Disadvantages :

Developpers won't port their apps saying that they work anyway through Wine
Things will continue to be developped for Windows only and this won't help Linux in general
DirectX gets updated about once a year, and Windows API change at every windows release. This means 100% compatibility won't ever be reached unless Microsoft releases Windows source (yeah, right!)

[Civrules]

It's not compatible with Spam Subtract PRO 2.0 (which is a new program)...

[MarineCorps]

Originally Posted by Civrules

It's not compatible with Spam Subtract PRO 2.0 (which is a new program)...

Doesn't matter. The computer I will run it on is almost a crippled computer It's about 6 years old and has hardly anything on it. And it doesn't connect to the internet.

[stormbind]

@Sodapop

Seems very odd that you correct me by almost quoting me

Originally Posted by stormbind

aka X11 Protocol

And... it's absolutely abysmal

Lack of widgets are a key problem. You want them hardware accelerated (at the lowest possible level) with the minimal number of messages between application and hardware. X11 forces the use of additional layers, to support widgets, which multiplies (many times) the number of messages passed from high-level applications to low-level system software specifically because it does not support it's own widgets.

So you want a long list of alternative Operating Systems, huh? Calling my bluff are you? Well... I made a list when brainstorming, at about the time I happened to be designing a display system and there were more than fifty alternatives!

However, you may be in luck... because I cannot find the file, and if you check back in this very forum you will see that one of my hard drives blew up! The details might be on there. Seriously

But as you won't actually be interested in the full list anyway, one of the better Open Source projects is the fork of AtheOS called Syllable. There are many other good solutions such as two forks of BeOS, which are Zeta, and Haiku. Hurd is the practically complete system ready to replace Linux as the GNU representative, and there's even a 32 bit version of DOS, and an Open Source rendition of Microsoft Windows NT! (I forgot the name of that one) ... I could go on for hours and easilly pass 50.

[stormbind]

Originally Posted by Thrawn

Linux is not exactly meant to run games. It's mostly used for programming, thus, the console system is more suitable than a GUI.

True, but the emphasis here is a desktop OS

[stormbind]

Originally Posted by Sodapop

And finally, OpenGL games are as fast on Linux as on Windows provided the right drivers (example : http://www.anandtech.com/linux/showdoc.aspx?i=2241). nVidia does that, and the speed are about the same on both OS. Next time you want to write a post about Linux, verify your fact before spreading FUD like that.

I spread no FUD, you nitwit

NVidia drivers are closed source. Try the open source NVidia drivers are they stink! Most vendors do not release closed source Linux drivers for their hardware, so you relly on the open source code which doesn't take full advantage of the hardware, and even many of those that do, do not release matured drivers. Highlighting an exception, does not change the rule.