Google is adding new features to its Desktop search program, including further customization of the Sidebar and the ability to send information directly to a friend’s desktop, search on multiple computers at once and lock the search function with a password.
Google Desktop 3 poses new challenges to Microsoft Corp.’s dominance of the way people interact with computers, but also demands users place far greater trust in Google’s capacity to protect their privacy.
The new features are expected to be released soon for Google Desktop, a free downloadable program that lets users search for files on their hard drive using keywords and to launch applications. The accompanying Sidebar is a floating tool palette that offers personalized news, RSS feeds, weather, stock quotes and other information based on a user’s preferences. It also displays scrolling lists of the most recent e-mail and offers a scratch pad and to-do list.
Another enhancement to the Sidebar is the ability to share content with other users by sending it directly to another person’s Sidebar or via instant messaging, in both cases thanks to integration with the Google Talk instant messaging service, so both users need to be logged into Google Talk. Content can also be shared via email, by launching an email interface from Sidebar. To share directly from one Sidebar to another, both users must have Google Desktop 3 beta installed. This is not a requirement for sharing content via Google Talk or email.
Google Desktop vacuums up data stored on a users’ PC and makes it accessible on any other computer in regular use by the customer at home or work or even on an airplane trip, assuming users consent to storing data on Google’s central computers.
Google also is opening up its mini information panels to encourage independent developers to build applications for users, borrowing a strategy first popularized by Apple Computer Inc., and Yahoo Inc., and which Microsoft plans to introduce in the next version of Windows for consumers.
Google has built 100 such "applets" so far — from games such as online chess or tick-tack-toe to monitors for checking airline flight times or eBay auctions in progress, said Sundar Pichai, Google’s director of product management.
Outside developers will be encouraged to contribute many more. Customers would download these from Google’s site at desktop.google.com.
These instant-information panels are perfect also for small-screen mobile phones and other devices — making good on its goal of giving access to information anywhere.
Still, Rob Helm, an analyst with "Directions on Microsoft," said that the world’s largest software company had both technical and business defenses against Google.
Microsoft has far more diverse businesses than Google including not just its Windows operating system, but Office applications, server and database software and Web services. Google basically depends on advertising alone, Helm noted.
It is a race where Google is trying to get into Microsoft’s business before Microsoft cuts off Google’s advertising business, Helm said.
With the new beta version of Google Desktop 3 users can drag Sidebar modules to any location on the screen they want. This new collaboration and sharing capability is the upgrade’s most compelling feature, because it adds a social computing dimension to the product, said Greg Sterling, an analyst with The Kelsey Group. Because Google Desktop’s functionality can be extended through its APIs (Application Programming Interfaces), it will be interesting to see how third-party developers broaden this social computing aspect of the product, he said.
People who regularly use several computers can now use Google Desktop to search for items stored on multiple computers simultaneously, even when they are not connected to the Internet. Once the “Search Across Computers” function is enabled, text copies of documents and Web history are automatically transferred to the other computer that has Google Desktop installed, said Pichai. When the user searches on one computer for information, the second computer is automatically searched.
Google will delete any copies of the files from its servers within 30 days and encrypts the data, he said. Google automatically excludes from being transferred any password-protected files and secure Web pages, and users can exclude any folders or files, he added.
Other new features include advanced search forms, spelling suggestions for queries, the ability to disable indexing, the addition of zip file indexing and an improved preferences page.
This is starting to amount to a new operating system, though Google would never describe it as such, Gartner Inc. analyst Allen Weiner said. “It is going to be Microsoft’s challenge to offer the same level of flexibility and power for both consumers and content creators.”
However, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) recommended that users avoid enabling this "search across computers" feature. The storage of PC files on Google servers makes users more vulnerable to subpoenas from the government or private litigants, the EFF said in a statement.
The government and private litigants only need a subpoena to obtain personal files stored on Google servers, whereas it needs a search warrant to get them if they are on a PC in a user’s home or office. This is because the Electronic Communication Privacy Act of 1986 affords less privacy protection to data stored on online service provider servers than to data stored on a home or work PC, the EFF said.
Many Google Desktop users report a shock of realization when they become aware how much personal information about themselves is contained on their machines.
But, by giving users the ability to search for text documents across their computers; Google risks angering corporate security managers who may fear the loss of corporate secrets through the openness of such systems.
Google officials said the company already offers an "enterprise" version of Google Desktop that gives network administrators control over the level of freedom users have to share files within or outside their organizations.
Individual users also have the ability to select which documents or folders are excluded from document sharing. Another security feature allows users to lock out anyone but themselves from using Google Desktop search on their computers in order to protect PC data from prying colleagues.
Weiner said the computer industry’s drive to deliver a wide array of personally relevant information to consumers on PCs, phones, TVs or in their cars increasingly demand trade-offs between personal privacy and convenience and personalization.
Desktop search is a hot area and all the major search engine companies have been trying to out-do each other in features.
Microsoft launched MSN Search Toolbar with Windows Desktop Search last May and is planning to include its Sidebar product in the next version of its operating system, called Windows Vista. Yahoo Widgets is based on the Konfabulator program that Yahoo acquired last year. And Apple Computer offers Dashboard for the Mac OS.
"Google is willing to proceed…even if a significant percentage of people will not use these features, at least immediately," Weiner said. Yahoo faces some of the same issues with its push to run its services on phones and TVs, he said.
Google Desktop 3 beta currently runs on Windows XP and Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 and above. It is currently available in English, but Google plans to release versions in 15 other languages later.