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Google Desktop Search

     - Friday, October 15, 2004

The Google Desktop Search tool was released today. By far, this is the #1 best thing I've seen all year. That's saying something since it's already October.

I'm flat out floored at the functionality of it. Download a tiny app, and within minutes (no kidding) it indexes your entire computer, email included, and makes it available to search. Search results appear quickly and easily in your browser. If it's email, there's a link to "Open in Outlook". I found stuff today on my computer that I thought I'd lost years ago! Amazing.

Just like the web search Google, there's cached pages too, so no need to launch the search result's associated program if you don't want to. You can sort by Date or by Relavency. Once installed, whenever you search at Google.com, you'll also get results from your own computer too. Results are categorized by email, files, IM's, and web history, so if you're looking for an email, you can look at just the email results.

Network drives aren't indexed automatically (thankfully), but the files you open from network drives are indexed so they'll be searched next time.

I already use Google to find everyone I need in the outside world: maps, addresses, phone number, track my packages, movies, error messages, etc. It's about time we got a good search engine that would tell me where I put my resume 3 years ago!

Google Desktop Beta - Search Your Own Computer

posted by Kevin Watts |  Permalink |