Search your computer and harddisk with google desktop search

[emm]

Quote:

Google Desktop Search is how our brains would work if we had photographic memories. It's a desktop search application that provides full text search over your email, computer files, chats, and the web pages you've viewed. By making your computer searchable, Google Desktop Search puts your information easily within your reach and frees you from having to manually organize your files, emails, and bookmarks. After downloading Google Desktop Search, you can search your personal items as easily as you search the Internet using Google. Unlike traditional computer search software that updates once a day, Google Desktop Search updates continually for most file types, so that when you receive a new email in Outlook, for example, you can search for it within seconds. The index of searchable information created by Desktop Search is stored on your own computer. In addition to basic search, Google Desktop Search introduces new ways to access relevant and timely information. When you view a web page in Internet Explorer, Google Desktop Search "caches" or stores its content so that you can later look at that same version of the page, even if its live content has changed or you're offline. Google Desktop Search organizes email search results into conversations, so that all email messages in the same thread are grouped into a single search result. We're currently working to fine tune our algorithms and to add more capabilities to Google Desktop Search, including the ability to search for more types of information on your computer. Your opinions and feedback can help us with this process. What types of files or other information would you like to be able to search? What new features would be helpful? Please contact us and let us know.

http://desktop.google.com/
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[dude]

It is very useful. But I think, it also has some security or privacy risks. After you install this software it saves all your emails, IM conversations etc. Now whenever one searches with google web page the first results that are shown will be the emails and IM conversations on your own computer! What if someone else was doing the search in my browser? I would have no privacy.

[quantum]

That is a valid question. Of course, it can be a privacy risk if you are not careful enough when you leave your computer open for other people to browse.
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[x_ray]

Quote:

Google's new PC search tool poses risks AP, New York PEOPLE who use public or workplace computers for e-mail, instant messaging and Web searching have a new privacy risk to worry about: Google's free new tool that indexes a PC's contents for quickly locating data. If it's installed on computers at libraries and Internet cafes, users could unwittingly allow people who follow them on the PCs, for example, to see sensitive information in e-mails they've exchanged. That could mean revealed passwords, conversations with doctors, or viewed Web pages detailing online purchases. "It's clearly a very powerful tool for locating information on the computer," said Richard M. Smith, a privacy and security consultant in Cambridge, Mass. "On the flip side of things, it's a perfect spy program." Google Desktop Search, publicly released Thursday in a "beta" test phase for computers running the latest Windows operating systems, automatically records e-mail you read through Outlook, Outlook Express or the Internet Explorer browser. It also saves copies of Web pages you view through IE and chat conversations using America Online Inc.'s instant-messaging software. And it finds Word, Excel and PowerPoint files stored on the computer. If you're the computer's only user, the software is helpful "as a photographic memory of everything you've seen on the computer," said Marissa Mayer, director of consumer Web products at Google Inc. The giant index remains on the computer and isn't shared with Google. The company can't access it remotely even if it gets a subpoena ordering it to do so, Mayer said. Where the privacy and security concerns arise is when the computer is shared. Type in "hotmail.com" and you'll get copies, or stored caches, of messages that previous users have seen. Enter an e-mail address and you can read all the messages sent to and from that address. Type "password" and get password reminders that were sent back via e-mail. Acknowledging the concerns, Mayer said managers of shared computers should think twice about installing the software until Google develops advanced features like password protection and multi-user support. Users can also surf on non-IE browsers like Opera and Mozilla, although the software may index Web pages already stored before the software gets installed. Managers of public access terminals can also install software or deny users administrative privileges so they can't install unauthorized programs, such as Google's. In fact, many libraries and cybercafes already do so. The new Google tool would not only aid people in spying on past patrons on public PCs. At home, users could record their kids' instant messaging conversations or view a spouse's e-mail. In the office, employers could index what their workers are up to. If each user has a separate logon to Windows, Google Desktop Search will be stymied, however. That's because only one person can install and use the software on a given computer. The power of Google's software relies on centralizing what's already saved on computers; most browsers, for instance, have a built-in cache that keeps copies of Web pages recently visited. The difference is that Google's index is permanent, though users can delete items individually. And the software makes all the items easier to find. The software can also betray users, said Annalee Newitz, policy analyst at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Delete an e-mail or file, yet a copy remains on Google's index.

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[emm]

Thanks for posting the article x_ray. It shows that Google desktop search has pros and cons both. We better be careful before installing that software.
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“You might say reality is the result of complex negotiations between the observer and the observed. But that is simply a point of view…”
Digital Bangladesh