Google releases desktop search tool
Google product searches PC files
Free tool to hit market before Microsoft version
By LESLIE WALKER and DAVID A. VISE
Washington Post
Google released a free tool Thursday that lets people simultaneously search the Web and their personal computers for information, a move analysts described as a potential blow to rivals Microsoft and Yahoo in the race to woo searchers and dominate the hottest area of online advertising.
Google's new "desktop search" software offers what Microsoft has been trying to develop for more than a year — the ability to let people enter one search term and see files relevant to that topic from both their computers and the Web displayed together.
"It's ironic that until now, it's been easier to search six billion documents on the Internet than it has been to find a single file on your hard drive," said Charlene Li, principal search analyst for Forrester Research.
Google's new software, available as a free download at http://desktop.google.com, not only indexes the full text of e-mail messages and word processing documents, but also gives people the option of creating a searchable archive of all Web pages they visit and all instant messages they send and receive with AOL software.
Analysts who tested the software say it is simple and fast, partly because it operates the same way Google does on the World Wide Web, by creating an index of the files it finds in advance and then searching that index when someone enters a query. That makes it speedier than the approach used by the search tool built into Microsoft's Windows operating system.
Google's release of the product ahead of Microsoft poses a problem for the software giant, said Danny Sullivan, editor of searchenginewatch.com, because the personal archiving capability likely will grow more valuable to users over time, making it harder to switch to another search engine product.
Google's desktop search only works on computers running Windows, specifically Windows XP and Windows 2000, and indexes the full text of only certain documents, including those created in Microsoft's Outlook and Outlook Express e-mail programs.
HoustonChronicle.com - Google releases desktop search tool
Free tool to hit market before Microsoft version
By LESLIE WALKER and DAVID A. VISE
Washington Post
Google released a free tool Thursday that lets people simultaneously search the Web and their personal computers for information, a move analysts described as a potential blow to rivals Microsoft and Yahoo in the race to woo searchers and dominate the hottest area of online advertising.
Google's new "desktop search" software offers what Microsoft has been trying to develop for more than a year — the ability to let people enter one search term and see files relevant to that topic from both their computers and the Web displayed together.
"It's ironic that until now, it's been easier to search six billion documents on the Internet than it has been to find a single file on your hard drive," said Charlene Li, principal search analyst for Forrester Research.
Google's new software, available as a free download at http://desktop.google.com, not only indexes the full text of e-mail messages and word processing documents, but also gives people the option of creating a searchable archive of all Web pages they visit and all instant messages they send and receive with AOL software.
Analysts who tested the software say it is simple and fast, partly because it operates the same way Google does on the World Wide Web, by creating an index of the files it finds in advance and then searching that index when someone enters a query. That makes it speedier than the approach used by the search tool built into Microsoft's Windows operating system.
Google's release of the product ahead of Microsoft poses a problem for the software giant, said Danny Sullivan, editor of searchenginewatch.com, because the personal archiving capability likely will grow more valuable to users over time, making it harder to switch to another search engine product.
Google's desktop search only works on computers running Windows, specifically Windows XP and Windows 2000, and indexes the full text of only certain documents, including those created in Microsoft's Outlook and Outlook Express e-mail programs.
HoustonChronicle.com - Google releases desktop search tool
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