Free online tool: Google Desktop Search

For many, Google has become an integral part of our online experience. Now with Google Desktop Search, you can harness Google's searching power on your own computer. Is this free online tool the best thing ever or an excuse for fast and loose filing?

About Google Desktop

Google Desktop Search is a simple yet powerful free online tool that enables you to search your computer for files in the same way you use Google to search the web. Sorry Maccers, but currently it’s only offered to those with Windows 2000 or Windows XP.

Available as a free download, Google Desktop Search sits - you’ve guessed it – on your desktop ready for when you need to find a file. Punch in the search term and it will then scour the following areas:

emails (included deleted messages)
files, namely Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents, pictures, MP3 files and so on
web pages viewed online, or any HTML files on your computer
AOL instant messages

The results are displayed in reverse date order, but you can rearrange them by the above categories. Each result is linked, so you click to open the email in Outlook, the document in Word, etc. It will also tell you which folder the item is in, handy for those with haphazard filing systems.

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The verdict

Like Google itself, the Google Desktop Search tool returns results very quickly and is incredibly easy to use. There’s no doubt it’s a million miles better than Microsoft’s hopeless search facility.

For the first week, I used Google Desktop Search exhaustively.

But then I realised something. Basically, the tool dispenses with the need to have any sort of filing system. As a consequence, it rapidly becomes an excuse for bad filing. Why bother putting stuff in the right place if your faithful hound will find it for you while you slob out on the couch?

I found that pretty soon, the short cut became corner cutting as I started to let my normally well ordered filing system go, safe in the knowledge that Google Desktop Search would find files for me.

The tool was teetering on the brink of becoming indispensable when I made the deliberate decision to stop using it as much. I told myself the virtue of locating a well positioned file ought to be its own reward. Before long I got things back in order and nowadays I only use Google Desktop Search to find long deleted files.

Want to give it a go? Download it from here. Let us know what you think of it via comments (below).

Sam Leader is a director of Flying Solo and its editor. She is the co-author of Flying Solo - How to go it alone in business.

5 comments | Add your own

Hi Sam - it sounds perfect for me, but I'll remain mindful of the need to stay disciplined on filing ! I've downloaded it and its now indexing - Thanks. Grant Hyman from Sydney | Read my articles
Sam, I have tried Google but my preference over the last nine months is Copernic (free), it finds words in email attachments very quickly and saves all those time consuming filing operations! Brian Seth from Perth
Why the obsession with neat filing? Let yourself go and rely on search; it works on the web, why not on your own computer?
I use this principle with email and most text files on my machine and find that searching turns up what I want in no time.
It's a totally legitimate approach, especially with email. Richard from Sydney
GOD BLESS you Sam. HEADS UP everyone else!
As one of the *many* Mac users in the universe, I REALLY appreciate knowing right up front that I won't be able to use the technology.
If the hours.I've wasted (clicking and searching simply to find out something is "PC only") could be returned to me, I probably could afford to give away a quarter of the classes I charge to take!!!
More to the point for your readers, I usually go away with a bad taste in my mouth for such blatant disregard for my time - never to return. That little detail - basic consideration - moved flyingsolo from great to FANTASTIC in my eyes.
Thanks!
PS. Another thing PC users need to think about are "surprise downloads" -- links that turnout to be downloads on sites where links usually take you to other pages - .exe or .pdf ESPECIALLY!
MACs can't run exe.s and Adobe Reader now conflicts with some software that needs to be closed BEFORE you click or your computer freezes. Madelyn Griffith-Haynie from Knoxville, Tennessee - USA
Madelyn - Thanks! It helps that Robert has a Mac so I always try to be mindful of non-PC users.
Richard - you have a point, maybe I should loosen up! I occasionally get nervous if I feel overly reliant on technology.
Brian - Haven't heard of Copernic before, sounds good. In fact I am always on the lookout for new T&T ideas - so I appreciate the suggestion, and any others that readers may have. Sam Leader from Sydney, NSW

5 comments | Add your own

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