Google Desktop makes searching your computer as easy as searching the web with Google

Google Desktop is a tool that makes searching your computer as easy as searching the web with Google.

It's a desktop search application that provides full text search over your email, files, music, photos, chats, Gmail, web pages that you've viewed, and more.

By making your computer searchable, Desktop puts your information easily within your reach and frees you from having to manually organize your files, emails and bookmarks.

Google Desktop doesn't just help you search your computer; it also helps you gather new information from the web and stay organized with gadgets and sidebar. Google Gadgets can be placed anywhere on your desktop to show you new email, weather, photos, personalized news, and more.

Sidebar is a vertical bar on your desktop that helps you keep your gadgets organized.

Here are some key features of "Google Desktop":

￭ Quick Search Box
The Quick Search Box is your fastest way to do web and desktop searches and launch applications. You can call it up by pressing the ? key twice, and hide it by pressing ? twice again. Type a few letters or words into the search box and your top results pop up instantly, including applications. For example, you can launch iTunes simply by typing "itu" into the Quick Search Box and pressing Return when iTunes appears as the first result.

￭ Search Your Gmail and Web History
Not everything you're looking for lives on your Mac. Whether you're searching your computer or the web, Desktop helps you find it by searching your Gmail and web history along with your hard drive. Also because your index is stored locally on your own computer, you can even access your Gmail and web history while you're offline.

￭ New! Google Gadgets
Google Gadgets are interactive mini-applications you can add to your Dashboard to show you new email, weather, photos, and personalized news. Other gadgets include the clock, calendar, scratch pad, to do list and many more.
Use the Google Gadgets application to choose from the enormous collection of gadgets created by Google and users all over the world.

￭ Many File Types
Google Desktop automatically indexes and allows you to search the full text of virtually all your files, including the following types:
- Gmail
- text files (.txt)
- PDF
- HTML
- email from Apple Mail and Microsoft Entourage
- iChat transcripts
- Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint
- music and video files, including artist and song names
- Address Book contacts
- system preference panes
- file and folder names
Google Desktop also searches file types that have a Spotlight importer.

￭ Familiar Results
When you do a Desktop search, you'll see a list of search results. Each result, just like Google web search results, includes the file name and a brief snippet with your search terms highlighted. You can also filter for a particular type of item -- only emails, for instance -- by using the links at the top of your Desktop search results page.

￭ Smart Indexing
After you install Google Desktop, it starts indexing the files that are already on your Mac. This one-time indexing is designed to peacefully coexist with your normal work, so you can continue working while indexing takes place. Depending on how many files and other items you have on your computer, this process can take up to several hours. Once it's done, Desktop makes sure your index stays up to date by adding new email as you receive it, files as you update them, and web pages as you view them.

￭ Google Integration
What if you already have the information you're looking for but don't realize it? When there are useful results on your Mac related to your Google web search, Google Desktop will include these files with your search results. There's also a simple command center for searching your computer, which you can access by clicking "Desktop" above the search box on Google.com.

￭ File Versioning
Google Desktop creates cached copies (snapshots) of your files and other items each time you view them, and stores these copies on your Mac's hard drive. As a result, you can often use Desktop to find previous versions of your files or ones you've accidentally deleted.

What's New in This Release: [ read full changelog ]

· Improved machine responsiveness while indexing.
· Reduced initial indexing time on machines with a large number of files by up to 40 percent.
· Added full support for Mozilla Firefox 3.
· Added full support for developer builds of Camino.