Online search power Google has introduced a new software program that can look through files on the hard drive of a desktop PC to locate documents, e-mails, instant messages and media content.
While it can be used offline to examine the contents of a PC, the beta version of Google Desktop Search is designed to integrate with the company’s online search function.
Users who download the new desktop program at http://desktop.google.com will find that their search engine toolbar includes a ‘desktop’ tab. Subsequent Google searches will include a section that lists relevant content on the user’s hard drive. In the FAQs for the new program, the company specifies that the content of the hard drive is not made known to anyone but the user, not even Google.
By making the leap from Internet to desktop search, Google expects to spur an increase in traffic to its online search engine and boost revenue from ads placed on search pages.
The rollout gives Google an apparent lead in the race to bring to market search tools that integrate inside/outside searches. Other competitors in that race include such household names as Yahoo, America Online, and most notably Microsoft, which in July 2004 bought Lookout, a small technology company with a solution for searching Outlook e-mail. Microsoft has also suggested that hard-drive searching will be built into Longhorn, the next version of its Windows operating system, due in 2006.
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