Ever wished you could quickly search your computer for that chat, email, or web site you remember you had/saw some time ago with some important information in it? Wish no more, for Google [1] has come to the rescue with their Google Desktop Search (GDS) [2]! GDS will allow you to “search the full text of your email, files, viewed web pages, and chats.” More specific search capabilities are listed on the GDS About page [3].
Rael Dornfest of the O’Reilly Network writes this about GDS: “The Google Desktop [Search] is your own private little Google server.” Mr. Dornfest has written an excellent overview on setting up and using GDS [4], which unfortunately, requires a PC running Windows XP or 2000 SP3+ [5]. Mr. Dornfest’s closing remarks outline how good GDS is: “In evaluating the Google Desktop as an interface to finding needles in my personal haystack, one thing sticks in my mind: I stumbled across an old email message I was sure I’d lost.”
Apple users will have to wait for Google to come out with a version of GDS for Mac OS X – or they can wait for Apple’s upcoming Mac OS X 10.4, aka Tiger [6], which adds similar “instant” system-wide search via Apple’s new Spotlight [7] search technology. Soon all of us will be able to easily search through our virtual computer desktop clutter. However, it is quite unfortunate that GDS/Spotlight won’t make it any easier for us to search through the actual junk on our desks!
[1] http://www.google.com
[2] http://desktop.google.com/
[3] http://desktop.google.com/about.html#whatis
[4] http://tinyurl.com/5tdxj
[5] http://desktop.google.com/about.html#sysreq
[6] http://www.apple.com/macosx/tiger/
[7] http://www.apple.com/macosx/tiger/spotlight.html