[Shadow_Group] Fw: Google Launches PC Hard-Drive Search Tool

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Google Launches PC Hard-Drive Search Tool 

Thu Oct 14, 5:32 PM ET   Technology - AP 
 

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP Business Writer 

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - Google Inc. on Thursday became the first tech
heavyweight to tackle the daunting task of uncluttering computers,
introducing a program that quickly scours hard drives for documents,
e-mails, instant messages and past Web searches. 


AP Photo 

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With the free desktop program, Google hopes to build upon the popularity
of its Internet-leading search engine and become even more indispensable
to the millions of people who entrust the Mountain View-based company to
find virtually anything online. 


The new product, available at http://desktop.google.com<http://desktop.google.com/>, ups the ante in
Google's intensifying battle with software giant Microsoft Corp. and
Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO - news), which owns the world's second most
popular search engine. 


Google's desktop invasion heralds a momentous step into a crucial realm -
the challenge of managing the infoglut that has accumulated during the
past decade as society becomes more tethered to increasingly powerful
computers. 


"We think of this (program) as the photographic memory of your computer,"
said Marissa Mayer, Google's director of consumer Web products. "It's
pretty comprehensive. If there's anything you once saw on your computer
screen, we think you should be able to find it again quickly." 


Although its desktop program can be used exclusively offline to probe
hard drives, Google designed it to run in a browser so it will meld with
its online search engine. Google.com visitors who have the new program
installed on their computer will see a "desktop" tab above the search
engine toolbar and all their search results will include a section
devoted to the hard drive in addition to the Web. 


The desktop search program could be the bridge to a day when Google
begins offering consumers the option of storing some files directly on
the company's own computer servers, said Danny Sullivan, editor of Search
Engine Watch. "It would be the next logical step if this is a success,"
he said. 


As it is, the desktop search program provides Google with a powerful
magnet to lure traffic from its chief online search rivals, Microsoft's
MSN and Yahoo Inc., both of which have been improving their technology. 


"Other major search engines will undoubtedly launch similar offerings in
the next few months but they will have to match Google's offering to keep
their customers happy or best it to gain new converts," Forrester
Research analyst Charlene Li wrote in a report Thursday. 


A smattering of lesser-known companies, such as X1 Technologies of
Pasadena, already offer desktop search programs. Google is the first
company among high-tech's household names to try to make it easier for
people to sift through the information mishmash on computer hard drives.
It dispenses with the confinement of Microsoft's current model of files
and folders. 


Google's program trumps Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft, which plans to
deliver its long-awaited desktop search tool by the end of the year. AOL
and another search engine maker, Ask Jeeves, are reportedly close to
entering the fray. Yahoo said Thursday that it "remains highly focused on
evolving our products to empower users to manage all their digital
content wherever it may reside." 


Google is betting the program will expand its search engine audience and
encourage even more online searches than it already processes - a pattern
that would yield more advertising revenue, the company's main moneymaker.



The company's financial success already has turned its stock into a hot
commodity, and Thursday's news provided another lift. Google's shares
gained $1.10 to close at $142 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The stock has
surged by 67 percent since its initial public offering price less than
two months ago. 


Leery of raising privacy concerns that have shadowed its recently
introduced e-mail service, Google is stressing that the desktop search
program doesn't provide a peephole into the hard drive, even when the
product connects with the online search engine. 


"It's totally private," Mayer said. "Google does not know what happens
when the hard drive is searched." 


By default, the program will track performance, bugs and other metrics
without recording personal data, the company says. 


Pam Dixon, executive director for the World Privacy Forum, said she will
withhold judgment until she thoroughly reviews the new program. "The key
question will be if this thing ever phones home to the mother ship." 

   



Despite her reservations, Dixon expects Google's desktop search program
to have mass appeal. "I think most people think of their computer hard
drives as these black holes of information, so this could be of some real
value," she said. 

Google began working on the program, code named "Fluffy Bunny," about a
year ago, Mayer said, in response to a familiar refrain: "Why can't I
search my computer as easily as I can search the Web?" 

Currently compatible only with the Windows operating system, Google's
400-kilobyte desktop program requires about 10 minutes to download on a
dial-up connection and takes some five or six hours to index a computer's
hard drive. 

Each program user can select the types of information to be indexed and
searched. 

The product can pore through the files using Microsoft Office
applications and several types of e-mail programs, including Microsoft's
Outlook and Hotmail and Yahoo. 

Google's desktop search still doesn't work with the company's new e-mail
service, called Gmail. If desired, the program automatically saves all
AOL instant message conversations and creates a cache of all Web pages
surfed by a computer. 

Google's desktop search program is so powerful that analysts cautioned
computer users to carefully consider what kind of material they want
indexed, particularly if they're sharing a computer with family, friends
or office colleagues. 

Google plans eventually to offer some kind of password-protection to
restrict desktop searches for individual users. 

"People are going to have to think pretty carefully about this," Li said
during an interview. "There are some things that you probably don't want
indexed on a computer." 


 
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