Every now and then a company comes along that Just Gets ItTM.
Google is one of those companies. I have been playing with the new Google Desktop Search beta application, which is a locally-installed program that indexes content on your local computer and allows you to search it, in-line with other Google searches.
It might take a minute to realize the utility of this. Bear with me. Then use it and see for yourself. This is (as Scott world say) pure sex.
Once you install Google Desktop, any Google search can then include your local desktop/machine search in-line, as shown above. You can also do a desktop-only search, and you can choose to disable the ability to show Desktop Search results on Google Web Search result pages. Google states that your personal search results and data are kept private from Google.
What can you index on your desktop machine? Google Desktop is able to index the following items so that you can search for them:
Find out more on the Google Desktop “About” page, or see more screenshots here. Also available are the Getting Started Guide and a page dedicated to privacy questions and concerns.
I've been using it for a couple of hours, and already I can tell that this is not something I will not be giving up any time soon. I am adding this to my little box of tricks.
Want to try? Jump over to http://desktop.google.com and install the small app, and you'll be on your way. If you have thoughts or comments after trying it, feel free to share them here, and be sure to let Google know.