Google has released a free search tool which sits on the PC desktop and can search its host computer for virtually anything. Launched on Thursday, it blends a search of hard-drive files, emails, recently visited web pages and Instant Messenger chat using Google鈥檚 popular web search format.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a great tool and it鈥檚 going to be useful for a lot of people 鈥� we鈥檝e all got a lot of stuff all over the place that isn鈥檛 visible,鈥� says Danny Sullivan, editor of the search industry news site SearchEngineWatch.com.
鈥淭he location of computing power has become irrelevant. Whether you are working with the desktop or online, it doesn鈥檛 matter,鈥� adds Chris Sherman, editor of SearchEngineWatch.com鈥檚 daily newsletter.
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Integrating web and hard-drive search is not a new concept 鈥� Microsoft has promised to include the capability in its next generation operating system, Longhorn. Lesser-known companies, such as Blinkx and Copernic, have been offering blended hard drive and web searches since earlier in 2004.
Pre-emptive strike
But Google is the first company with an audience of millions to make the technology freely available, says Oren Etzioni, a computer scientist who designs new search technologies at the University of Washington, Seattle, US.
鈥淓veryone anticipated that Microsoft would try to gain an advantage by doing this,鈥� he explains. 鈥淏asically this is Google鈥檚 pre-emptive strike.鈥�
The Google Desktop Search works by automatically indexing all Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint files stored on a hard drive, any Outlook and Outlook Express emails, Internet Messenger (IM) chat logs and a history of pages recently surfed with Internet Explorer (IE).
It uses algorithms similar to those used by Google to index web pages and then stores the information in a folder on your hard drive, which it updates regularly.
鈥淭he goal is that Google Desktop Search should be a photographic memory for your computer,鈥� explains Marissa Mayer, Google鈥檚 director of consumer web products, based in Mountain View, California, US. This is in contrast to Microsoft鈥檚 current tool for hard drive search, which is slower because it does not rely on an index, and does not search email, IM and IE.
Privacy issues
But Mayer asserts the new tool should not make it easier to rifle through someone else鈥檚 personal documents. She says there is the option to switch off the storage of web surf histories and IM logs. 鈥淕oogle is as secure as your computer,鈥� she says.
The software鈥檚 size 鈥� just 450 kilobytes 鈥� and its 鈥減ainless鈥� download, which takes just a few minutes, have impressed Sherman. 鈥淭hey鈥檝e made an elegant job of integrating it with Google, which everyone already knows how to use,鈥� he says.
But he cautions that other companies, particularly Microsoft, which is openly waging a 鈥渟earch war鈥� with Google, cannot be ignored. 鈥淭his certainly raises the bar of excellence, but it is not a knockout blow,鈥� he says.
He is excited about Microsoft鈥檚 next innovation. 鈥淭hey have extremely talented people, they are going to come out with something,鈥� he says.
Etzioni predicts that search engines of the future will index audio and video, as well as text.