Google has released its business version of desktop search

Google has released the business version of its desktop search tool. It comes just eight months after its consumer toolbar product. Google Desktop Search for the Enterprise, best of all it will be a free download.

Google say their Desktop Search is how our brains would work if we had photographic memories. It's your own computers search program that gives you a full text search over your email, computer files, chats and all of the Internet web pages you've seen on-line. By making your own computer searchable, Desktop Search puts your information more easily within your reach and frees you from having to manually organise your files, emails and bookmarks.

In the business environment, the amount of information is growing at such a rate, that most of us have become overwhelmed.

Why would I want Desktop Search loaded onto my computer?

Since you can easily search information on your computer, you don't need to worry about organising your files, email or bookmarks. You can just do a quick search for what you remember seeing, instead of having to remember which file, email or web page had the information you need, and where that item is now located on your computer.

You can search your desktop using the search box that's displayed on your desktop. You can also just do an ordinary Google web search; your desktop results will appear at the top of the list.

How does it work – how does it know what’s on my computer?

After you download Google Desktop Search, their program creates an index of all your searchable information. It then stores it on your computer, which then lets you search all of your personal items, just as easily, and in a very similar way that you now search the Internet using Google. Unlike traditional computer search software that updates once a day, Desktop Search updates continually for most file types; when you receive a new email in Outlook, for example, you can search for it within seconds.

From a business perspective, Google Desktop Search for the Enterprise also has a series of installation, distribution, management and security features that IT departments can use when deploying and configuring this tool for their users. For example, all user data and index files can be encrypted, and an installer package is included for enterprise-wide distribution. Also, the tool can create different indexes in a machine that is used by different people, and it can ensure each index is accessible only to the user for which it was created.

How soon can I search my computer after I install Desktop Search?

As soon as you install it, Google Desktop Search starts indexing the email, files, and web pages that were already stored on your computer. This process occurs while you aren't using your computer and may take several hours, depending on how many items need to be indexed. You can search the indexed items during this time. You can also restart your computer and indexing will resume where it left off.

Google Desktop Search shouldn't slow down your computer's performance at all, because it only builds its index when you aren't using your machine. So it may make sense to install the program late at night or before going to lunch.

But Desktop Search does not search all my communications and files?

Google Desktop Search is designed to search the most common items on your computer. If it doesn't search everything you want it to, be sure to check out the Plug-in Download page to find plug-ins that expand its capabilities. Developers can also learn more about developing plug-ins.

What are the system requirements for running Desktop Search?

Google Desktop Search is currently available for Windows XP and Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 and above. To install it on an office machine, you should have administrator privileges (home users shouldn't have this problem). It requires 500MB of available space on your hard disk, and we recommend a minimum of 128MB of RAM and a 400MHz Pentium processor.

What languages is Google Desktop Search available in?

Google Desktop Search is currently available in English, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean and Spanish. You can also do a limited number of searches in other languages. Google is committed to making this product available in as many languages as possible, though, so stay tuned for future updates.

What about my privacy? Does Desktop Search share my information with anyone?

Google Desktop Search doesn't make your computer's content accessible to Google or anyone else. The application also offers privacy options such as not indexing password-protected Office files or secure web pages.

It does however share a controversial feature of the consumer version - it takes snapshots on the fly of every Web page a user views and indexes the content. Some users have expressed concern this might be counterproductive if sensitive or confidential information is captured as a user surfs the Web, such as credit card numbers, passwords and online banking information. Users can configure both tools not to capture secure HTTPS webpages.

You can learn more about this issue by reading the Desktop Search privacy policy

Arthur Hissey
Computer Research & Technology
www.crt.net.au