Google Desktop Search

ZelZel Join Date: 2003-01-27 Member: 12861Members
<div class="IPBDescription">google set to pwn microsoft</div> Theres another new service from Google avaliable as beta, its called <a href='http://desktop.google.com/' target='_blank'>Google Desktop</a>.

It will index your Documents, emails, AIM conversations and IE history, so that you can instantly search any of it. It's super handy for school papers, when you want to look up information.

It feels like with Google's IPO, they have the new funding to make all kinds of world-altering programs. This is the start of what computers are like in scifi novels, i can now just ask it and it will find information!

Comments

  • That_Annoying_KidThat_Annoying_Kid Sire of Titles Join Date: 2003-03-01 Member: 14175Members, Constellation
    so now google can find out everything on your computer, send it back with your ip and id cookie # [the cookie lives till 2038]

    while inovative I think I will pass until I am more secure with google and them actually not being evil
  • ZelZel Join Date: 2003-01-27 Member: 12861Members
    edited October 2004
    i got the article from Slashdot, and the techs over there claim to have tested the port connectivity, and the app does not appear to send any data out, nor open any ports. (Being closed source, there is a minute possibility it could at a later date send out information.) The EULA also asked if it could report back to google the file search times and average file sizes/types, (which you can easily uncheck the box to say no) and that it would not send any personal information.

    We have to trust google as far or farther than we trust microsoft with our personal files. Microsoft has the opportunity, through ambiguous "windows updates" to record everything we do and report any KazAa usage to the RIAA, but that sort of privacy infringement is certainly illegal.

    edit: typo
  • BlueNovemberBlueNovember hax Join Date: 2003-02-28 Member: 14137Members, Constellation
    Hey, here's an idea,
    You could make a folder called "My Documents" and put all your documents in it! Woh hoh, you could even further divide it into subfolders with appropriate names! <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->

    Seems like a useful idea for the disorganised, but no ty. Excessive use of partions and folders for me anyday.

    I trust google infinately more than I trust M$. If I ever do find it necessary to presss F3, I'll resist the urge and use google instead.

    Hmm. Wonder if I can pay to make my most popular files come up as sponsered links. <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
  • Cold_NiTeCold_NiTe Join Date: 2003-09-15 Member: 20875Members
    Good lord, google labs is amazing... and very creepy at the same time. First their gmail service where they get to see your emails and use the data, then google searches where they track what you are looking for, now they get to see whats on your computer. They may not send out the information immediately, but it could be sent out after a delay.

    Still it is a very useful service.
  • BobTheJanitorBobTheJanitor Join Date: 2003-12-10 Member: 24228Members, NS1 Playtester
    Tin-foil hat-wearers aside, this is a very nifty service. I'd use it, but I start getting tweaky with more than a few things residing in my toolbar and eating my precious resources.
  • Cereal_KillRCereal_KillR Join Date: 2002-10-31 Member: 1837Members
    so this is basically their new WinFS indexing thing, 3 years before Microsoft? (or whatever the Mac equivalent is in the new MacOs X)
  • Nemesis_ZeroNemesis_Zero Old European Join Date: 2002-01-25 Member: 75Members, Retired Developer, NS1 Playtester, Constellation
    Looks really cool, and I agree with those who are fairly certain that GLabs can be trusted, if anything because they don't have to rely on funding out of dubious sources at this point. As usual, I'll wait a few versions out to get a stable product before downloading.
  • ZigZig ...I am Captain Planet&#33; Join Date: 2002-10-23 Member: 1576Members
    oh my god, they're going to find out WHAT'S ON MY COMPUTER.. that's such bs hahaha

    i wish i had something WORTH finding on my computer.. do you skeptics all have, like, top secret government documents and black ops records on your HD's?
  • Nemesis_ZeroNemesis_Zero Old European Join Date: 2002-01-25 Member: 75Members, Retired Developer, NS1 Playtester, Constellation
    edited October 2004
    A little less bravado there, please. I myself am not too fond of the concept of 'customer profiling', so I appreciate to know where my personal information goes. I'm not particularily fond of today's hyper-advertised environment in any case, and when a company starts to literally dig in my trash to 'personalize' that experience, I draw the line.
  • ZigZig ...I am Captain Planet&#33; Join Date: 2002-10-23 Member: 1576Members
    actually, i'd enjoy it if spam and advertising were a little more interesting.. i never get Guns & Ammo ads on TV, i never get videogame popups, i always get CASINO spam and MORTGAGE spam and **** ENLARGEMENT spam..

    <b>PLEASE DO</b> cater your advertising to my intrests, advertising people..!! <!--emo&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/confused-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
  • Nemesis_ZeroNemesis_Zero Old European Join Date: 2002-01-25 Member: 75Members, Retired Developer, NS1 Playtester, Constellation
    edited October 2004
    Your choice. But accept that I'd rather have them keep my private life in peace for the price of having a few more breast enlargement spammails.
  • NEO_PhyteNEO_Phyte We need shirtgons&#33; Join Date: 2003-12-16 Member: 24453Members, Constellation
    <!--QuoteBegin-Nemesis Zero+Oct 14 2004, 01:30 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Nemesis Zero @ Oct 14 2004, 01:30 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> Your choice. But accept that I'd rather have them keep my private life in peace for the price of having a few more breast enlargement spammails. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
    do you act on these spam emails?
  • Nemesis_ZeroNemesis_Zero Old European Join Date: 2002-01-25 Member: 75Members, Retired Developer, NS1 Playtester, Constellation
    Yes. With acid sarcasm.
  • ThinGThinG Lord of wub and vlaai Join Date: 2003-04-11 Member: 15400Members, Reinforced - Supporter
    edited October 2004
    The only real safe computer these days is one that isn't connected to the Internet.
    Whatever e-mail service you use, your mail will pass through a server. Anyone with sufficient access levels can read your mail. Hotmail or your own ISP e-mail servers aren't very different. If you read Hotmail's User Agreement (or one of the other things you have to agree to), you will see that Hotmail claims ownership to anything in e-mails that pass through their servers. So if you wanted to e-mail those plans for perpetual energy to your friends, don't use Hotmail <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->.

    Seriously... "safe" is a very subjective term these days.
    If you don't trust the application, don't use it. Simple.
    Otherwise use a decent router/firewall combination and don't let the application send out anything, at all.

    If you really want to be safe get your 8-bit NES from the attic and entertain yourself with that. <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->
    If you trust Nintendo that is...

    Plus, anyone who feels offended by this post or feels the need to reply should seriously think about better things to do with their time.

    Blurp.
  • Nemesis_ZeroNemesis_Zero Old European Join Date: 2002-01-25 Member: 75Members, Retired Developer, NS1 Playtester, Constellation
    <!--QuoteBegin-ThinG+Oct 14 2004, 07:36 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (ThinG @ Oct 14 2004, 07:36 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> The only real safe computer these days is one that isn't connected to the Internet. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
    As a rule of thumb, that's certainly true, but I don't see why I should get defeaistic over it. Yes, I can only maintain so much of my privacy. That should be all the more incentive to hold tight to what remains.

    (Yes, I've got too much time on my hands. Happens when you can't go out due to mean university schedules and it's still too early to go to bed.)
  • ZelZel Join Date: 2003-01-27 Member: 12861Members
    <!--QuoteBegin-BlueNovember+Oct 14 2004, 12:07 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (BlueNovember @ Oct 14 2004, 12:07 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> Hey, here's an idea,
    You could make a folder called "My Documents" and put all your documents in it! Woh hoh, you could even further divide it into subfolders with appropriate names! <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
    I had been keeping it organized, but after four years of schoolwork documents, that became troublesome, and now they are organized between 'old stuff' and 'relevant stuff', and theres simply too many folders to look through.

    same for data files, most of my friends keep 2,000 songs in one folder, and let windows organize them alphabetically. i always kept them sorted by artist, which can be extremely difficult when collecting <i>en masse</i>. When i passed 8,000 i simply couldnt keep up with that organizational scheme, and when i passed 1,500 artists, it was too much work to find any one in particular. I then was using iTunes to organize them by artist and album. Now, at 14,000 songs, even that method is ungainly, slow and painful. it is infinitely easier now to have them kinda-organized in folders, and an instantaneous google search will pull any file relevant to what i am looking for!
  • EEKEEK Join Date: 2004-02-25 Member: 26898Banned
    I'll bet in 20 years Google unveils the first AI construct and names it 'Shoogle'.
  • DragonMechDragonMech Join Date: 2003-09-19 Member: 21023Members, Constellation, Reinforced - Shadow
    <!--QuoteBegin-BlueNovember+Oct 14 2004, 11:07 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (BlueNovember @ Oct 14 2004, 11:07 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> Hey, here's an idea,
    You could make a folder called "My Documents" and put all your documents in it! Woh hoh, you could even further divide it into subfolders with appropriate names! <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
    Works for me... <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->
    MD.JPG 38.1K
  • DOOManiacDOOManiac Worst. Critic. Ever. Join Date: 2002-04-17 Member: 462Members, NS1 Playtester
    So... Its basically the same as window's built in Find In Files feature, except its indexed so its a little faster, but it doesn't look in every file...



    Why use this again?


    What it reminds me of the most is a utility a few people have at work called XFire of XOne or something like that, pretty much its this except not free. They paid $100 liscenses. heh.

    I just can't really get excited about this though. Nothing about the privacy, I just don't need it. Well, maybe when HL2 comes out and I need to look within the SDK, it'd be a little faster than Find In Files...


    I wonder if it takes regular expressions...


    What I'd love to see is GIDE. A development IDE of some sort. Just cause I want a good free one. :P
  • DOOManiacDOOManiac Worst. Critic. Ever. Join Date: 2002-04-17 Member: 462Members, NS1 Playtester
    Also, to those who have tried this, when they say searching Text files, do they mean strictly .TXT extension? Cause if it could search .cpp .php and other text files, that would be a godsend...
  • DOOManiacDOOManiac Worst. Critic. Ever. Join Date: 2002-04-17 Member: 462Members, NS1 Playtester
    *BUMP*

    I put this little app on my pc at work today, and I must say I was pretty impressed. It does indeed search through text files such as C++ and PHP files, not just strictly .txt extension files. This makes it omfgpwn for searching source code. Although it would be really neat if it gave the line number it appeared on, but still that's no biggie.

    Something I haven't seen mentioned is that once you find a message in Google Desktop Search (GDS) you can click on it and read the contents of said e-mail while still in your browser window. And from there you can Reply, Forward, or Compose a new e-mail, and it'll even open outlook for you if its closed already, properly quoting the message and everything. Very cool.

    Another neat feature is that if you find an MP3 with it, or any other document, and you click the link, it just opens it as if you had double clicked the file in Explorer. No "Open / Save" box from your browser or anything, its just smoothly integrated.

    Also, despite not claiming it, they seemed to sneak in at least partial Firefox support. When you go to Google it has the Desktop link there (and I'd really like to know how their webserver handles that too...) and when you search it will mix your filesystem results in w/ the web results, just like it does for IE. It doesn't cache your Firefox cache files though, but this sort of thing would seem like a rather trivial thing to me...


    The only thing that really keeps it from being as useful as it could be now is that it doesn't index network drives. If it did, omg it'd pwn and everybody at work would use it in a heartbeat. Other cool things it could do would be to run as a system service in the background (even when you're not logged in) instead of in the tasktray, as well as being able to specify what to open whatever programs with.


    Its really neat and really scary at the same time.
  • ChronoChrono Local flyboy Join Date: 2003-08-05 Member: 18989Members
    bah you should only worry about privacy if your hiding something

    come on think of it!

    like google cares that i play half life 8 hours a day? <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->
  • ScytheScythe Join Date: 2002-01-25 Member: 46NS1 Playtester, Forum Moderators, Constellation, Reinforced - Silver
    I'll install it when it fully supports Firefox and Thunderbird.

    --Scythe--
  • camO_ocamO_o Join Date: 2004-04-19 Member: 28028Members
    Don't use over networks office networks without blocking off your mail or otherwise private caches.

    <a href='http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/10/15/1840215&tid=217&tid=158' target='_blank'>http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/...tid=217&tid=158</a>
  • DOOManiacDOOManiac Worst. Critic. Ever. Join Date: 2002-04-17 Member: 462Members, NS1 Playtester
    Man, that is pretty stupid.

    My office it really isn't a problem with, because there's only 12 of us anyway, but for like bigger companies that could be a very, very big problem. That could let malicious employees get around all kinds of security restrictions...

    How could google be so stupid?
  • ChronoChrono Local flyboy Join Date: 2003-08-05 Member: 18989Members
    damn dumb google and they even said its a "feature not a bug"
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