Desktop Google - make sure you get it!

http://desktop.google.com
from WinCustomize Forums

If you're not already using desktop google, get it now and thank us later. It basically lets Google search your computer as if it were part of the web (don't worry, it's only local, so others can't search your computer).

So for finding emails, files, images, documents, it's wonderful. Check it out.

4,223 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
it is an old news but really worths. Infact it is greatest PC searching tool.
Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
> (don't worry, it's only local, so others can't search your computer).

Unless of course others have access to your computer.

Also from what I have read it can index encrypted files making them readily available to anyone who has access to the computer. (This may have been fixed in the latest release)
The Political Machine 2024
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I am turning off Google Desktop`s ability to search my internet history. Some people might say it poses a threat to privacy, but it simply obfuscates what I am really searching for. If a topic has recently appeared on my mental landscape, I will have looked for it on the internet. Without a doubt. So the first half to three quarters of Google Desktop search results are always from my internet history, and I simply do not consider this part of my desktop. If I am searching for something that I wrote or someone wrote to me, it is likely to be buried beneath a whole bunch of web pages that I visited before or after I wrote or read the document I am looking for.

If the magic behind Google is cross-linking and popularity of search results, I wonder how or whether they are doing anything like that with their desktop tool. If so, I need to google bomb my desktop.

Personally, Viapoint (http://viapoint.com) is more to my liking than Google Desktop. I like to be able to see and manipulate the relationships between the items I am interested in. Because Viapoint is a Windows.Form app rather than a Web app, its more sophisticated UI lets you create and organize these and other relationships into Projects, Groupings, Companies, etc. With Viapoint, you get a glimpse into the future of what WinFS might be.
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Tried it, but it would not index all of my drives including my boot windows xp pro drive of L:. Also would not index my E: or Z: drive but did index my C: and D:. So I uninstalled since it would not index all of my drives
Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I tried it, and it's indeed very cool. But I also tried Copernic Desktop Search and I like it much better: http://www.copernic.com/en/products/desktop-search/index.html
CNet's review of Copernic Desktop Search: http://reviews.cnet.com/Copernic_Desktop_Search/4505-3684_7-31087427-2.html (there is even a vifdeo about it on CNet's home page)
In comparision, CNEt's review of Google Desktop Search: http://reviews.cnet.com/Google_Desktop_Beta/4505-3684_7-31153475-2.html  
My personnal take on it is that they are both lightning fast and both do an equaly good job for the actual search. But Copernic is not browser based (comforts me security wise) and offers more options. I can specify what I want to search, while Google searches everything always. I also prefer the way Copernic displays the results.  I just overall find it more user friendly.
Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I totally agree I have been using Copernic for a few weeks now and it has changed the way I use my computer. Don't know what I would do without it!