New version of Google Desktop, Search your files at the speed of light.

New an improved, Google Desktop now caches more file types.

Not a new program, Google Desktop came out late last year. Being a geek, I downloaded it and tried it out.

Made by Google, you know that it is a good product, simple, and easy to use with a purpose in mind, to make your life easier. Unlike Windows search, Google Desktop search leads the way in the need to find files quicker and more accurately. With the prices of hard drive space bottoming out, and the costs of bandwidth becoming more affordable, people have more files today than every before. That also means there is that much more to organize and potentially lose.

Slow and clumsy, or at least we know that now that Google Desktop is here, Windows search can search a drive, a folder, whatever you need. But with Gigabytes of files, this could take forever. And you are just trying to figure out if you still have something, just to get an idea, maybe not to search out something specific, and you would like an answer quickly.

Look under the hood to see how the magic works!

This is how Google Desktop works. Like Google online, Google Desktop will cache all of the files on your hard drive for you to search. When you are away, watching the boob toob, Google quietly searches and indexes your whole hard drive worth of files. So, when you type in a file you need, the results pop up instantly! That’s less than one second.

Now, I haven’t had a use for this feature, because I am by nature, very type A about my computer files. I need to access them, and I have a strategy with a good memory that doesn’t often necessitate searching for something. But every once in awhile I do. Tonight I actually tested to see what kind of results I would get for some image files I knew I had of my wife, doing some reference poses for one of my online contests.

Not even needing to be online, I opened a browser, and entered in Google address in the address bar. If online, there is a line entitled “Desktop” that will switch you to a screen that will only search your computer.


I searched for “Sarah Rothe .jpg”. I searched for her name, and I wanted an image file with a .jpg extension. Up popped some 57 pages of results for me to go through.

The pitfall is your own organization

Now although this is a great tool, it does remind you how proper naming and organization is important. It also told me that I don’t clear my cache enough. I got a ton of results from cached webpages, most of them email. It made me go through, rename some files, delete some, and of course, clear my cache in the browser I don’t use as often. (I need it to help me with my memory in other browsers for webpages.)

Conclusion

Google Desktop is something that everyone should try if you have even once lost a file, and can’t even remember what it is called. Google with return results with the path name, with all of the parts searchable. From the folder names, to file names, to even the text in the documents. Desktop previously only cached emails, Microsoft Documents, and web files. Below you will see a more complete list of what types of files will be it’s index, even video, music, and of course, images files.

If I used this more, I would give it a higher rating. For someone who is busy and not organized, this would be a life and time saver.

Coolness Rating

Google Desktop

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