As I mentioned in my last post, Google recently released a new Beta Desktop Search tool for personal computers. There’s been quite a bit of discussion about it across the internet since it’s release. Google is a leader in Internet Search technology and has applied this technology to a desktop version. The tool is essentially a small, free 400-kilobyte file that you install on your computer and it runs in the background quickly indexing everything on your computer.

It searches everything that is stored on your computer, from files, office document, email messages and even AOL instant messenger chat content. It’s pretty amazing actually and typing in any keyword or phrase will bring up a whole slew of related content on your computer. It also integrates into the main Google search page so that when you type in a search phrase, it displays matches found on your local computer before the matches it finds out on the web. If you manage a lot of information or are not very skilled at keeping things organized, this tool can be very handy. For instance, you can type in an email address or name of someone and it will retrieve everything related to that person on your computer such as email conversations, discussion threads, Word files, HTML pages, websites etc.

There are a few cautions, however. If it is installed on a public computer at a library or Internet cafe, then your behavior is being logged by the Google tool and anyone who sits down after you can basically retrieve everything you looked at on the web or view any documents you accessed. Even if you delete the content, the Google search tool can maintain a cached version of it. You can tell if it’s running on the computer by checking the system tray in the lower right corner of the desktop. The Google search tool is represented by a small multicolored swirl. You can right-click on the icon and exit the program, which disables it from logging what you do.

Other then public computer usage, the tool is pretty cool. The program only indexes content when your computer is idle so it doesn’t take up much processor power. Give it a try if you want to play around. It’s worth trying at least once just to see what sort of related content you have on your computer. It’s great, for instance if you can’t remember where you saw that cool website a few days ago but want to get back to it. You can type in a keyword on the subject and it will pull it up. This is only a Beta version so I’m sure Google will continue to broaden it’s use. The tool can be downloaded free from http://desktop.google.com.

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