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Google's Beta App Goes Alpha: Desktop Search 1.0

Google Now Extends Desktop Search to PDF, Music, Video, and Image Files
By Jeremy Geelan
Article Rating:
March 8, 2005 12:00 AM EST
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 22,865
"It's like having a photographic memory of everything you've seen with your computer, right at your fingertips. said Jonathan Rosenberg, vice president of Product Management at Google, as Google Inc. yesterday announced the formal launch of Google Desktop Search, a free downloadable application which enables users to search for information on their own computers.

"Google Desktop Search brings the power of Google search to information on the computer hard drive," Rosenberg continued. "We're proud to take Google Desktop Search out of beta, and we will continue to extend the utility of desktop search for users worldwide."

Previously in beta, today's 1.0 release adds search over the full text of PDFs and the meta-information stored with music, image and video files. Additional enhancements include support for the Firefox and Netscape browsers, Thunderbird and Netscape email clients and new Chinese and Korean language interfaces.

In addition to searching a wide range of computer files and email, Google is the first desktop search tool to access the full text of web page history and the only one to search AOL instant messages. Google Desktop Search can also be used to recover accidentally deleted or misplaced information. For instance, a user who unintentionally deletes a Word document or PowerPoint presentation can use the tool to find the text stored in Google Desktop Search. All results are accompanied by cached snapshots of each web page and document so users can access information even if they're not connected to the web or if a document has been deleted.

Google Desktop Search will also provide application programming interfaces (APIs) that enable software developers to create new and innovative applications using the desktop search product. Plug-ins developed with these APIs will be made available for download at http://desktop.google.com/plugins, enabling users to search new content types such as Trillian chats and the full-text of scanned images, such as faxes.

More information on the Desktop Search APIs can be found on the web at http://desktop.google.com/apis.

Additional enhancements to Google Desktop 1.0 include a free-standing search box that users can place anywhere on their desktop; making access to desktop and web information faster and easier than before. In addition to enabling users to block HTTPS web pages, Google Desktop Search now also excludes all password-protected documents from Microsoft Word and Excel.

Google Desktop Search is available at http://desktop.google.com. It is currently available for Windows XP and Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 and above. It requires 500MB of disk space, a minimum of 128MB of RAM, and a 400MHz (or faster) Pentium processor is recommended.

Published March 8, 2005 – Reads 22,865
Copyright © 2005 SYS-CON Media, Inc. — All Rights Reserved.
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More Stories By Jeremy Geelan

Jeremy Geelan is Sr. Vice-President of SYS-CON Media & Events. He is Conference Chair of the all-new International Cloud Computing Expo series, of the International Virtualization Expo series, of AJAXWorld RIA Conference & Expo series, and of the long-running SOAWorld Conference & Expo series. He's founder of Cloud Computing Journal, Web 2.0 Journal, AJAX & RIA Journal and other leading SYS-CON titles. From 2000-6, as first editorial director and then group publisher of SYS-CON Media, he was responsible for the development of all new titles and i-Technology portals for the firm, and regularly represents SYS-CON at conferences and trade shows, speaking to technology audiences both in North America and overseas. He is executive producer and presenter of "Power Panels with Jeremy Geelan" on SYS-CON.TV.

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Most Recent Comments
Search Me 03/08/05 02:52:25 AM EST

This is sooooo cool. And all the APIs are available?
Lurch 03/07/05 03:21:01 PM EST

Hmmm... Data mining taken to new heights. Beware!
Futurama 03/07/05 11:53:46 AM EST

So, will the Google Calendar be launching next? If so, how soon?
desktop searcher 03/07/05 11:52:47 AM EST

No wonder Marc Lucovsky, one of Microsoft's key Windows architects, has defected to Google!
RiskyBusiness 03/07/05 11:50:24 AM EST

So we can now find those old AOL chat sessions with our ex girlfriends? This could be dangerous...