Google Desktop Search Unveiled

ZDnet is reporting that Google (on Thursday) unveiled its first-generation desktop application for searching through personal files and Web history stored locally on a PC, a move that could shake up the landscape of Internet search and raise privacy hackles.

Google's Desktop Search is a thin-client application (about 400k) that, upon initial installation, scans the hard drive in the background to index the full text of Word, Outlook e-mail, Excel files, text files, AOL chat logs, and saved Web pages from Internet Explorer--a process that typically takes between five and six hours. Then as the application runs, it indexes new documents and visited Web pages in real time.

(People using Firefox and other browsers will not be able to record their Web history using the application.)

"It's like photographic memory for your computer--if you've seen it before, you should be able to find it,' said Marissa Mayer, director of consumer Web products at Google."

I am sure that there will be a lot of talk about this in all the forums. I will be posting a list of the threads here shortly, stay tuned. A topic WAS running in the Search Engine News forum at Band of Gonzos Forums. Drop on by and let us know what you are thinking.

Screenshots and Overview of Google Desktop Search.