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How to Search your PC
with Google Desktop
by: Nowshade Kabir
In this era of Internet, most people are
frequent users of computers. Many of us use computers
through out the day, accumulating morasses of information in
various formats, which include email, digital photo, word
document, spreadsheet, presentation file, ebook, article,
other downloaded files, music, visited web pages, and many
others. We stuff them in multiple folders in our PC. Before
we know it, our hard drives become a storeroom of misplaced
items. As a result, finding a needed file of information
some times become a daunting task!
The search function integrated to
Microsoft Windows is not a big help either. It requires you
to know, albeit vaguely, where the file could possibly be
located. If your data storage is significant and you made a
search on your whole hard disk, it might take ages to get
search results and, then again, there is no guarantee that
you will find the right file. Frustrating? Thanks to new
Google Desktop Search this is about to change!
What is Google Desktop Search?
Google Desktop Search is a free
downloadable small program, which will quickly and easily
find your files no matter where in your hard disk they are
stored. The great thing about this program is by making your
computer searchable, this program frees you from having to
manually organize and sort your files, emails, and
downloads. You no more have to mull over where in your PC
the information you are looking for is residing – in your
email, files or web pages that you browsed recently.
At present Google Desktop Search works
only with the full text in Outlook and Outlook Express
email, text, HTML, Word, Excel and PowerPoint files, AOL
chat, and Web pages viewed through Internet Explorer. Other
files like PDF will be probably added in future version.
How it works?
Google Desktop Search is fairly easy to
download and set up. The address for downloading the program
is
http://desktop.google.com. Once you installed the
program, it begins initial indexing process of your hard
disks. This may take several hours for an average size disk.
The one-time indexing process only works when the computer
has been idle for more than thirty seconds. Indexing for
Google Desktop Search is an ongoing process, new files and
emails get updated automatically. The search index created
by the program resides on your own computer.
On your system tray you will see a swirled
icon in Google colors, by clicking on it you will open the
regular Google search page with the addition of Desktop
along side with other search areas. Once the indexing is
done, files are searched in under a second and the results
are impressively precise. The top bar shows quantities of
files found under the four categories, which include emails,
files, chat and Web history. The results are shown in much
the same way as regular Google interface. You can choose to
see relevant results from all or any of the categories. You
can also sort results by relevance or by date. By clicking
on any result you open the file in respective application
software.
The email query results are the best! No
longer have you had to remember in which folder you stored
the email written to John in reference to Peter. By
searching for Peter or John, you will find all relevant
emails and related correspondence. You can read and answer
to any of the discovered email from the thread. This really
saves time when you need to follow up to a large numbers of
emails each day.
There are two more text buttons next to
the search field. One is Desktop Preferences and other is
Remove Items. Desktop preferences allow you to choose the
types of files you would like the program to include in its
index out of available ones. You can also point out not to
index specific folders from your hard disk. If you share
your PC with others, it’s a good idea to eliminate your
private folders from the Desktop index. You can also specify
not to index certain websites from your cached web history
as well. The Remove items button allow you to eliminate
selected results from the index.
The advance search option allows you to
search by phrase by putting the phrase within quotation
marks, to eliminate a word from search by putting a minus
sign in front of the word, to search by file type, and to
search within a web URL. A neat feature is to integrate your
desktop search with your web search. This is very handy if
you have already done an extensive search for some
information and after a few days doing search for similar
information once again. Privacy question
By default, Google Desktop Search collects
a limited amount of non-personal information from your
computer and sends it to Google. This includes summary
information, such as the number of searches you do and the
time it takes for you to see your results, etc. You can opt
out of sending this information during the installation
process or from the Desktop preferences later. According to
Google Privacy Policy no personally identifying information,
such as your name or address, will be sent to Google without
your explicit prior permission.
What is missing?
I bemoan not having PDF files in the
search process as yet. I have dozens of e-books and PDF
whitepapers residing in my PC, and I really would prefer to
have them indexed. That way, I’d have been able to read
materials, when I needed them most.
The other thing I want to see is clustered
result of my query, which shows organized search results
into meaningful hierarchical folders similar to the way
Vivisimo search engine works. This clustering is
particularly helpful for desktop search, as this allows us
to see other relevant documents connected to the searched
word.
Conclusion
Due to Google’s immense popularity as a
search engine, it’s logical that most users will prefer
Google’s desktop search program as oppose to other similar
programs, such as Copernic and Hotbot. Finally you can
search your very own computer with similar ease and
preciseness as you have been searching the Internet for
quite some time.
About The Author
Nowshade Kabir is the founder, primary
developer and present CEO of
Rusbiz.com. A
Ph. D. in Information Technology, he has wide experience in
Business Consulting, International Trade and Web Marketing.
Rusbiz is a Global B2B Emarketplace with solutions to start
and run online business. You can contact him at
mailto:nowshade[at]rusbiz.com,
http://ezine.rusbiz.com/archivenews.html?nl_oid=46 |
