Is Desktop Search Deserving?

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.


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