How to search your PC with Google Desktop
by Nowshade Kabir
Published on this site: October 29th, 2004
In this era of Internet, most people are frequent users of
computers. Many of us use computers through out the day, accumulating
morasses of information in various formats, which include
email, digital photo, word document, spreadsheet, presentation
file, ebook, article, other downloaded files, music, visited
web pages, and many others. We stuff them in multiple folders
in our PC. Before we know it, our hard drives become a storeroom
of misplaced items. As a result, finding a needed file of
information some times become a daunting task!
The search function integrated to Microsoft Windows is not a big
help either. It requires you to know, albeit vaguely, where the
file could possibly be located. If your data storage is significant
and you made a search on your whole hard disk, it might take ages
to get search results and, then again, there is no guarantee that
you will find the right file. Frustrating? Thanks to new Google
Desktop Search this is about to change!
What is Google Desktop Search?
Google Desktop Search is a free downloadable small program, which
will quickly and easily find your files no matter where in your
hard disk they are stored. The great thing about this program is
by making your computer searchable, this program frees you from
having to manually organize and sort your files, emails, and downloads.
You no more have to mull over where in your PC the information you
are looking for is residing – in your email, files or web pages
that you browsed recently.
At present Google Desktop Search works only with the full text
in Outlook and Outlook Express email, text, HTML, Word, Excel and
PowerPoint files, AOL chat, and Web pages viewed through Internet
Explorer. Other files like PDF will be probably added in future
version.
How it works?
Google Desktop Search is fairly easy to download and set up. The
address for downloading the program is http://desktop.google.com.
Once you installed the program, it begins initial indexing process
of your hard disks. This may take several hours for an average size
disk. The one-time indexing process only works when the computer
has been idle for more than thirty seconds. Indexing for Google
Desktop Search is an ongoing process, new files and emails get updated
automatically. The search index created by the program resides on
your own computer.
On your system tray you will see a swirled icon in Google
colors, by clicking on it you will open the regular Google
search page with the addition of Desktop along side with other
search areas. Once the indexing is done, files are searched
in under a second and the results are impressively precise.
The top bar shows quantities of files found under the four
categories, which include emails, files, chat and Web history.
The results are shown in much the same way as regular Google
interface. You can choose to see relevant results from all
or any of the categories. You can also sort results by relevance
or by date. By clicking on any result you open the file in
respective application software.
The email query results are the best! No longer have you had to
remember in which folder you stored the email written to John in
reference to Peter. By searching for Peter or John, you will find
all relevant emails and related correspondence. You can read and
answer to any of the discovered email from the thread. This really
saves time when you need to follow up to a large numbers of emails
each day.
There are two more text buttons next to the search field.
One is Desktop Preferences and other is Remove Items. Desktop
preferences allow you to choose the types of files you would
like the program to include in its index out of available
ones. You can also point out not to index specific folders
from your hard disk. If you share your PC with others, it's
a good idea to eliminate your private folders from the Desktop
index. You can also specify not to index certain websites
from your cached web history as well. The Remove items button
allow you to eliminate selected results from the index.
The advance search option allows you to search by phrase by putting
the phrase within quotation marks, to eliminate a word from search
by putting a minus sign in front of the word, to search by file
type, and to search within a web URL. A neat feature is to integrate
your desktop search with your web search. This is very handy if
you have already done an extensive search for some information and
after a few days doing search for similar information once again.
Privacy question
By default, Google Desktop Search collects a limited amount of
non-personal information from your computer and sends it to Google.
This includes summary information, such as the number of searches
you do and the time it takes for you to see your results, etc. You
can opt out of sending this information during the installation
process or from the Desktop preferences later. According to Google
Privacy Policy no personally identifying information, such as your
name or address, will be sent to Google without your explicit prior
permission.
What is missing?
I bemoan not having PDF files in the search process as yet. I have
dozens of e-books and PDF whitepapers residing in my PC, and I really
would prefer to have them indexed. That way, I'd have been able
to read materials, when I needed them most.
The other thing I want to see is clustered result of my query,
which shows organized search results into meaningful hierarchical
folders similar to the way Vivisimo search engine works. This clustering
is particularly helpful for desktop search, as this allows us to
see other relevant documents connected to the searched word.
Conclusion
Due to Google's immense popularity as a search engine, it's logical
that most users will prefer Google's desktop search program as oppose
to other similar programs, such as Copernic and Hotbot. Finally
you can search your very own computer with similar ease and preciseness
as you have been searching
the Internet for quite some time.
Nowshade Kabir is the founder, primary developer
and present CEO of Rusbiz.com. A Ph. D. in Information Technology,
he has wide experience in Business Consulting, International
Trade and Web Marketing. Rusbiz is a Global B2B Emarketplace
with solutions to start and run online business. You can contact
him at mailto:nowshade <at> rusbiz.com,
http://ezine.rusbiz.com/archivenews.html?nl_oid=46.
|
