Reinventing The Search Utility
With Google® Desktop
Contributed by Jay Schroyer
We all have that closet at home that becomes the dumping ground for all the things for which we don’t have a specific spot. There’s generally a wide assortment of shoes, sporting equipment, moving boxes, new purchases, extra dishes, car supplies, the list is endless; just as endless as our search would be if we tried to locate something in there. Your computer’s hard drive can sometimes become a lot like that closet. Each day we add items: word processing documents, spreadsheets, music downloads, electronic photos, e-mails, until the thing is virtually bursting with items that we often forget or seldom use. Wouldn’t it be helpful to have an inventory of that closet to help you find the things you need the most?
Completely shunning the Windows® search feature, Google has released a free program that allows you to search your hard drive with specific terms that produces results in seconds. Using the same algorithm that makes their web search utility so speedy, Google’s desktop search will make finding that lost e-mail or photo a quick and painless task. Follow these steps to take advantage of this new technology.
Get It
Go to desktop.google.com to download the free software from Google. Depending on your connection speed, this should be a fairly quick and simple process. Follow the installation wizard to install Google Desktop. A swirled, multicolored icon will appear below in your toolbar. All you have to do is double-click it to launch the program.
Launch It
Once Google Desktop is launched, it will begin to index your hard drive. Indexing is the program’s way of creating a sort of catalogue of all the contents. This indexing is what allows the program to locate your files so quickly during a search. Imagine trying to find a library book without consulting the card catalogue first! Depending on how much information you have, indexing could take anywhere from a couple of hours to all day.
Search It
When the indexing is done, you can now search for files on your computer. Google will continue to update the index as your files change and files are added to your hard drive. If you’ve ever used Google to search the Web, you’ll recognize the search screen. Simply type in what your looking for and let the Google Desktop search begin. Results will be listed in order of relevance, but you can always sort them by date, name, or even location. If you had some private documents that you don’t want showing up in a search, you can tell Google Desktop that you do not want hidden files indexed. There is also an advanced search which allows you to type in string search terms. If you remember an entire sentence from the document you are searching for, you can enter all of this information to aid Google with its search.
Currently, the Google Desktop program will search not only your saved files, but your web browser history and e-mail program as well. Unfortunately, there are a few shortcomings to the program which I’m sure will change with subsequent upgrades. There are some file extensions that the utility does not recognize and one of the greatest oversights was the exclusion of the PDF file format. I don’t know many computer users who don’t have a fair amount of PDFs in their saved files. But, this is where the Windows search option can come in handy. Simply search for files with the PDF extension to locate misplaced documents. Google Desktop also sends back usage information to Google concerning what type of file and the number of searches you perform with the program. This is, of course, simply feedback for Google to help improve their creation, but you can choose not to participate in this when you are installing Google Desktop onto your computer.
If you’ve ever been frustrated with the waiting often associated with a typical Windows search, you will definitely enjoy the speed and accuracy of the Google Desktop utility. A free download with no obligation is always a good thing to try. Whether you’re an old pro or a novice computer user always in need of help, you might just find that Google Desktop could become your number one search utility.
Google is a trademark of Google Inc. registered in the U.S. and/or other countries. Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation registered in the U.S. and other countries.
About the Author:
Jay Schroyer has worked in the client and customer service end of business for over five years in retail, advertising, and printing. He holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in English writing and communication.
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