By Jakob Jelling
http://www.sitetube.com
Google, in their march to stay ahead of the pack of competition, has
released Google Desktop Search. With Microsoft’s MSN in the lead position
and nipping at Google’s heels, and Google’s new shareholders to please,
Google has more incentive than ever to deploy technology both better than
the other guy’s, and sooner. After all, the first to get loaded to the
desktop is more likely to build and retain user loyalty.
Google Desktop Search allows you to search within various types of files
on your computer. It’s still in beta, but is available for download by
anyone. It requires Windows XP or Windows 2000 with at least Service Pack
3. It runs as a memory-resident application, with a system tray icon, so
that it can index new documents as they are created.
For example, if you know a certain word or phrase was in a Word document,
but you don’t remember which one, you can easily locate all documents on
your computer that contain that word. Desktop Search can search through
email, text, and HTML files, your cached web pages, and MS Office
Documents (Word, Excel, and Powerpoint only).
By way of comparison, there is a competing application, also free, from
Copernic, not surprisingly called Copernic Desktop Search. At the moment,
it is perhaps more advanced than Google’s. For example, Copernic’s
software scans the same type of files as does Google’s, but also scans
music and video files and PDF documents, while Google does not. Both
products can only scan Outlook or Outlook Express email at present.
But don’t count Google out. Webmasters know it’s never wise to do that!
After all, they’re still in beta with Desktop Search, and they are as
surely aware of Copernic’s product as they are of MSN. Google has both
the resources and motivation to not only keep but expand their market
leadership.
About the author:
Jakob Jelling is the founder of http://www.sitetube.comVisit his website for the latest on planning, building, promoting and maintaining websites.