SOTW: Google Desktop
Add another point in the Google column of programs that are extremely useful!
I installed Google Desktop some time ago and although I had a couple minor issues once I figured out what I wanted from it I’ve installed it on practically every machine I can get my hands on.
In its most simple form it is a search engine for your computer. I’ve always been frustrated with the basic “file search†program embedded in Windows (you know the one I’m talking about…it has a cheerful little dog that can’t find jack). But it goes much further than that.
If you have multiple computers connected on a network it will “index†all files on all computers across the network. This comes in very handy when you’ve got stuff spread out all over the place (like I did when I was using my laptop often). It can be configured in multiple ways too. You can have a search bar on your taskbar, a floating bar on your desktop, a keyboard shortcut activated one (which is what I use) or a full column on the side of the screen (what I did when I had a dual monitor setup).
When you’ve got the full column activated you can enhance it with a huge variety of add-ons and automatic searches…weather, news, sports, movies, recent searches…it’ll display a slide show of pictures you have, has a music player…all kinds of stuff. But what really blew me away is that when I’d so something like search www.craigslist.org for “Acura parts†it would automatically continue to search craigslist at set intervals and update me with new posts/ads. I’m not sure if that is part of that RSS stuff (that I know next to nothing about) or something it “figured outâ€â€¦but either way it was brilliant.
It’s come in especially handy for the computers at work. We’ve had a ton of different people using the PC’s in our office over time and they’ve spread out files all over the place. Before it was frustrating trying to find something…now a simple “ctrl-ctrl†click and up pops the search bar…type in what I’m looking for…and here come the files! It even shows relevant web pages that have been visited that pertain to that keyword. That is useful…but can also be used to spy on those that are a bit less computer savvy!
When fully activated as a column it can be a handful. It is constantly updating itself with new information and I found it a bit distracting as it would pop up things every couple minutes. If I was doing a lot of heavy computer work I’d probably like it that way…or at least would customize it to be a bit more selective. But running in it’s most basic form it’s been amazingly handy.
I highly suggest this program to anyone that wants to be able to pull up information on their computer quickly and easily. And for those that are seeking massive amounts of information from the internet or their network…with a little fiddling/customization…you won’t find anything better…or more useful.