Google has introduced a local hard disk drive search tool, hooked to the online search engine, that will enable users to choose between local and online searches. The company promises that this tool will enable you to find your email.
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.