Google Desktop

[Adcadet]

Anybody here using Google Desktop? I remember trying it out maybe a year ago but quickly uninstalling it due to resource utilization - I simply didn't have the RAM to dedicate to it. I actually found it through a search for a desk bar applet program similar to what OSX and Vista use. So far I'm pretty unimpressed - it searches my desktop, email, Google Documents - basically my whole computer which I suppose would be nice if I truly didn't know where I had a blurb of information. But usually I can figure that part out. The sidebar part is interesting, but it mostly just includes stuff that I put on my personalized Google homepage anyway, and that info is available to any internet connected computer.

 

[Tannin]

I vaguely recall some pretty nasty we-own-your-data provisions in the licence agreement, or at least recall reading about them somewhere. In consequence, I've never gone near it. Uninstalled it off customers' machines often enough - not as routine (the way I do with (e.g) sLimewire), but anytime I'm in the slightest doubt.

 

[Mercutio]

Google Desktop is part of the default software load on Lenovo/IBM laptops. It does make searching your PC faster, but to me it felt like a real drag on performance, particularly disk performance. It likes to update its index at pretty much random times.
I didn't find it useful, since I'm more than capable of organizing files so I can find them without needing an index.

For that matter, if I did need an index, I'd just set up the Windows indexing service properly.

And yes, it has a pretty horrid privacy agreement.

 

[CityK]

it searches...basically my whole computer which I suppose would be nice if I truly didn't know where I had a blurb of information. But usually I can figure that part out.

This is precisely why I always turn off indexing/search tools -- they are absolutely pointless to me. I have, though, read some user scenarios (library or archive type environments) where they make very good sense -- like when titles of articles aren't very informative as to the actual subject matters being discussed etc.

 

[mubs]

I too have organized my data such that I can find anything I want pretty quickly. In those few cases that I can't, the horrid built in windows file search does the job.

 

[Handruin]

I tried using google desktop to index my outlook mail because it was hard to search in outlook (at work). I found that the odd times of inactivity on my computer would make it constantly go into reindexing. I also found after a while of use it would become really slow and I'd have to reboot to fix the issue. It became more of an underused hassle that I eventually uninstalled and never looked back.

 

[Tannin]

Mubs said: "I too have organized my data such that I can find anything I want pretty quickly. In those few cases that I can't, the horrid built in windows file search does the job." That goes for me too, exactly the same.

 

[Adcadet]

After using Google Desktop for a while, I sort of like it. I like having their little applets on my desktop, including two weather ones (I'm a bit of a weather nut), a system monitor, a countdown timer to Match Day, an email applet that shows me my Gmail, and my Gmail callendar including my wife's events. And I actually like the ability to just type in the first few words of a file and have it pop up. My files are fairly well organized, but this is still a little quicker.

 

[Bozo]

After using Google Desktop for a while, I sort of like it. I like having their little applets on my desktop, including two weather ones (I'm a bit of a weather nut), a system monitor, a countdown timer to Match Day, an email applet that shows me my Gmail, and my Gmail callendar including my wife's events. And I actually like the ability to just type in the first few words of a file and have it pop up. My files are fairly well organized, but this is still a little quicker.

MS tried to copy some of these features in Vista. But, Vistas' search function blows goats.

Bozo :joker: