The Hindu Business Line : Locate your files

WE all love Google. For six years now, Google has been helping us find information from the dark holes of the Internet with utmost devotion. What began as a research project of two Stanford Ph.D students, Larry Page and Sergey Bin, has gone on to become one of the most popular tools of the Net, handling some 200 million search requests every day.

Now, Google wants to help you search your desktop better. With the same technology that worked wonders with the Internet search. Those who stack up gigabytes and gigabytes of data - all those pictures, music files, games and what have you - on the hard disk would agree how difficult it often gets to retrieve what they have stored. The Google Desktop Search is a free tool that scours your computer to find hidden files and text, relieving you of the task of organising folders yourself.

Google's free tool, which can be downloaded from http://desktop.google.com, currently searches Outlook/Outlook Express, AOL Instant Messenger (for e-mails and chat messages), Internet Explorer (for Web pages), Word, Excel and PowerPoint. It requires 500 MB space in the hard disk and takes only a few seconds over broadband and about a minute over a modem to install, claims Google. It is currently compatible only with Windows XP and Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 and above.

Once installed, the Desktop Search starts indexing the files residing in the computer's hard disk. This process may take `several hours' depending on the volume of data stored. What makes Google different from Microsoft Windows, which also does indexing, is that the former's tool does the job when the computer is idling. So while the Windows slows down the machine when it carries out the indexing, Google's tool does not affect the performance. Once the index is ready, users can easily do the search.

Google has cleverly integrated the Desktop Search, which is primarily meant for offline search of data within a computer, with its Web searching. So when you search the Internet for some information, whatever is already available in your machine would appear on a `desktop' tab on top of the search engine toolbar. Also, the Desktop Search will get you a Web page that you have viewed earlier through `caching.' So you can see older Web pages, even if they have changed now.

But wouldn't such a tool, which has access to data stored in your computer, create a privacy issue? Google says that it `treats your privacy with utmost respect', and the programme will not let others access your computer's content. However, Google says that it receives by default a limited amount of `non-personal information' from the computer, which includes information such as the number of searches done and the time taken to get the results. But users can opt out of sending this information and no personal data will be sent to Google either.

Since there could be many files in a computer that one user does not want others to access, especially if a machine is shared by multiple users, Google has made necessary provisions. Such files and data can be kept away from being indexed by the Desktop Search tool by following the specific instructions given in the user guide of the site. You can also remove a file after it has been indexed. Those who wish to download the tool may read relevant details in the Web site.

The area of desktop search tools is set to see more action in the coming days, media reports suggest. America Online is reportedly developing its own such tool. Microsoft too is getting ready with its MSN division acquiring a start-up, Lookout Software, last year. The software giant is expected to launch its desktop search software soon. Ask Jeeves has also acquired a desktop search developer and is now working on a product. Besides, many companies such as X1 Technologies already have similar applications. Google itself is working on further developing its tool, which is now in a Beta version. (And some work needs to start from within home: the Search does not work with Google's new email, Gmail, though it can delve into Hotmail and Yahoo!)

But for now, Google has stolen a march over others in the desktop search. The reason is simple: we all love Google.

Picture by Bijoy Ghosh

vipin@thehindu.co.in

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