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Google Desktop was a computer program with desktop search capabilities, created by
Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...
for
Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...
, Apple Mac OS X, and
Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...
systems. It allowed text searches of a user's email messages, computer files, music, photos, chats, web pages viewed, and the ability to display "Google Gadgets" on the user's desktop in a sidebar. In September 2011, Google announced it would discontinue a number of its products, including Google Desktop. The reason given was that "In the last few years, there’s been a huge shift from local to cloud-based storage and computing, as well as the integration of search and gadget functionality into most modern operating systems. People now have instant access to their data, whether online or offline. As this was the goal of Google Desktop, the product will be discontinued."


Features

As of January 2008, Google Desktop featured the following functionality:


Sidebar

A prominent feature of the Google Desktop is the Sidebar, which holds several common Gadgets and resides off to one side of the desktop. The Sidebar is available on the Windows and Linux versions of Google Desktop. The Sidebar comes pre-installed with the following gadgets: * Email – a panel which lets one view their own
Gmail Gmail is the email service provided by Google. it had 1.5 billion active user (computing), users worldwide, making it the largest email service in the world. It also provides a webmail interface, accessible through a web browser, and is also ...
messages. * Scratch Pad – here the user can store notes; they are saved automatically * Photos – displays a slideshow of photos from the "My Pictures" folder (address can be changed) * News – shows the latest headlines from
Google News Google News is a news aggregator service developed by Google. It presents a continuous flow of links to articles organized from thousands of publishers and magazines. Google News is available as an app on Android, iOS, and the Web. Google ...
, and how long ago they were written. The News panel is personalized depending on the type of news that users read. * Weather – shows the current weather for a location specified by the user. * Web Clips – shows updated content from RSS and
Atom Atoms are the basic particles of the chemical elements. An atom consists of a atomic nucleus, nucleus of protons and generally neutrons, surrounded by an electromagnetically bound swarm of electrons. The chemical elements are distinguished fr ...
web feeds. * Google Talk – If
Google Talk Google Talk was an instant messaging service that provided both text and voice communication. The instant messaging service was variously referred to colloquially as Gchat, Gtalk, or Gmessage among its users. Google Talk was also the name o ...
is installed, double clicking the window title will dock it to the user's sidebar. Like the Windows Taskbar, the Google Desktop sidebar can be set to Auto-Hide mode, where it will only appear once the user moves the mouse cursor towards the side where it resides. If not on auto-hide, by default the sidebar will always take up about 1/6 – 1/9 of the screen (depending on the screen resolution), and other windows are forced to resize. However, the sidebar can be resized to take less space, and users can disable the "always on top" feature in the options. With the auto-hide feature on, the sidebar temporarily overlaps maximized
windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...
. Another feature that comes with the Sidebar is alerts. When the Sidebar is minimized, new email and news can be displayed on a pop-up window above the Windows Taskbar.


Quick Find

When searching in the sidebar, deskbar or floating deskbar, Google Desktop displays a "Quick Find"
window A window is an opening in a wall, door, roof, or vehicle that allows the exchange of light and may also allow the passage of sound and sometimes air. Modern windows are usually glazed or covered in some other transparent or translucent ma ...
. This window is filled with six (by default) of the most relevant results from the user's computer. These results update as the user types, and allows use without having to open another browser window.


Deskbars

Deskbars are boxes which enable searching directly from the
desktop A desktop traditionally refers to: * The surface of a desk (often to distinguish office appliances that fit on a desk, such as photocopiers and printers, from larger equipment covering its own area on the floor) Desktop may refer to various compu ...
. Web results will open in a browser window, and selected computer results will be displayed in the "Quick Find" box (see above). A Deskbar can either be a fixed deskbar, which sits in the Windows Taskbar, or a Floating Deskbar, which may be positioned anywhere on the desktop.


Email indexing

Google Desktop includes plugins that allow indexing and searching the contents of local
Microsoft Outlook Microsoft Outlook is a personal information manager software system from Microsoft, available as a part of the Microsoft 365 software suites. Primarily popular as an email client for businesses, Outlook also includes functions such as Calendari ...
, IBM Lotus Notes, and
Mozilla Thunderbird Mozilla Thunderbird is a free and open-source email client that also functions as a personal information manager with a Digital calendar, calendar and contactbook, as well as an RSS feed reader, chat client (IRC/XMPP/Matrix (protocol), Matrix), ...
email databases, outside of the client applications' built-in search functions. For Lotus Notes, only local databases are indexed for searching. Google Desktop's email indexing feature is also integrated with Google's web-based email service,
Gmail Gmail is the email service provided by Google. it had 1.5 billion active user (computing), users worldwide, making it the largest email service in the world. It also provides a webmail interface, accessible through a web browser, and is also ...
; it can index and search the email messages in Gmail accounts.


Gadgets and plug-ins

Desktop gadgets are interactive mini-applications that can be placed anywhere on the user's desktop – or docked in the Sidebar – to show new email, weather, photos, and personalized news. Google offers a gallery of pre-built gadgets for download on the official website. For developers, Google offers an SDK and an official blog for anyone who wants to write gadgets or plug-ins for Google Desktop. An automated system creates a developer hierarchy called the "Google Desktop Hall of Fame", where programmers can advance based on their gadgets' number and popularity. The SDK also allows third-party applications to make use of the search facilities provided by Google Desktop Search. For example, the file manager Directory Opus offers integrated Google Desktop Search support.


Results list: title meta data

Even though other desktop search programs can search files meta data, Google Desktop (for Windows) is the only one that uses the "title" tag for its results lists of all files (On Linux it shows the meta-data of HTML files, but not PDF files). Other programs use the file names for their results lists. The use of the "title" tag gives a significantly better user experience, since metadata titles (when present) are written in ordinary language, while file names are less communicative. When the title meta data is missing from a file, Google Desktop reverts to use its filename.


Release history

Google Desktop was originally developed to bring Google search technology to the desktop. Google Desktop received much attention because it may allow
reverse engineering Reverse engineering (also known as backwards engineering or back engineering) is a process or method through which one attempts to understand through deductive reasoning how a previously made device, process, system, or piece of software accompl ...
of Google's proprietary
search algorithm In computer science, a search algorithm is an algorithm designed to solve a search problem. Search algorithms work to retrieve information stored within particular data structure, or calculated in the Feasible region, search space of a problem do ...
. A centrally administered version, which integrates the user experience with the vendor's appliance, exists as well. Google Desktop was officially discontinued on September 14, 2011. ;Microsoft Windows *The first release of Google Desktop Search was released as a beta version on October 14, 2004. *Version 2 was released as a beta version on August 22, 2005. The new feature that distinguishes Desktop 2 from Desktop is the addition of Sidebar, a panel that displays personalized information, which can be placed on either side of the Windows desktop and can display real-time news, e-mail, photos, stocks, and weather, among others. Sidebar includes a search box that can search just the PC or Google's other search types (like Web, Images, News, Groups.) Google Desktop 2 graduated from beta on November 3, 2005. New features include a sidebar plug-in for Google Maps and more plug-in developer support. *Google Desktop 3 Beta was released on February 9, 2006. It includes support for searching multiple computers on a network. Google Desktop 3 graduated from beta on March 14, 2006. Notable in this version is the quick search box, which appears anywhere on the desktop after pressing "control" twice. *Google Desktop 4 Beta was released on May 10, 2006. It features Google Gadgets, modules that can deliver an array of information. It also introduces option to automatically remove deleted files from search results. Google Desktop 4 graduated from beta on June 27, 2006. *Google Desktop v4.5 was released on November 14, 2006, adding a transparency aesthetic to the sidebar and "floating" gadgets. The graphic interface of the sidebar was also enhanced with more stylized icons for news, stocks, weather, photos, etc. Release 4.5 also added support for Windows Vista. *Google Desktop 5 Beta was released on March 6, 2007. * Google Desktop v 5.1 (the first post-Desktop 5 Beta release) is made available for download on April 27, 2007. * Google Desktop v 5.5 was released on October 2, 2007. * Google Desktop v 5.5 (5.7.0802.22438) was released February 29, 2008. * Google Desktop v 5.5 (5.8.0806.18441) was released July 1, 2008. * Google Desktop v 5.8 (5.8.0809.08522) was released September 11, 2008. * Google Desktop v 5.8 (5.8.0809.23506) was released October 5, 2008. * Google Desktop v 5.9 (5.9.0906.04286) was released July 8, 2009. It added support for the Chrome browser and is the last version mentioned in the release notes. * Google Desktop v 5.9.0909.02235 added support for the Private Browsing features of Firefox 3 and Internet Explorer 8. * Google Desktop v 5.9.0909.30391 has been released. * Google Desktop v 5.9.0911.03589 has been released. * Google Desktop v 5.9.1005.12335 was released in May 2010. * Google Desktop was discontinued entirely on September 14, 2011. ;Mac *In April 2007, Google released Desktop 1.0 for Mac OS X, which can function alongside the Spotlight search tool in Mac OS X v10.4. *On November 29, 2007, Google released Desktop v1.4.0.826 beta for Mac OS X, which plugs into
Dashboard A dashboard (also called dash, instrument panel or IP, or fascia) is a control panel (engineering), control panel set within the central console of a vehicle, boat, or cockpit of an aircraft or spacecraft. Usually located directly ahead of the ...
for Gadgets support. *Version 1.6 of the Mac version of Google Desktop does not function under
Mac OS X Snow Leopard Mac OS X Snow Leopard (version 10.6) (also referred to as OS X Snow Leopard) is the seventh major release of macOS, Apple's desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers. Snow Leopard was publicly unveiled on June 8, 2009, at A ...
. ;Linux *Google released Desktop 1.0 for Linux on June 27, 2007. It currently features the basic functionality of the Windows version and the sidebar functionality. *Google added
64-bit In computer architecture, 64-bit integers, memory addresses, or other data units are those that are 64 bits wide. Also, 64-bit central processing units (CPU) and arithmetic logic units (ALU) are those that are based on processor registers, a ...
support to the Google Desktop for Linux with version 1.1.1.0075, which was made available for download on December 18, 2007. *Google Desktop for Linux version 1.2.0.0088 was released on April 11, 2008.


Criticisms


Security

In February 2007, Yair Amit, of Watchfire, found a series of vulnerabilities in Google Desktop that could allow a malicious individual to achieve not only remote, persistent access to sensitive data, but in some cases full system control as well. The significant impact and the ease of exploitation forced Google to change some of Google Desktop's logic in Google Desktop version 5.


Privacy

Many
privacy Privacy (, ) is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves, and thereby express themselves selectively. The domain of privacy partially overlaps with security, which can include the concepts of a ...
and
civil liberties Civil liberties are guarantees and freedoms that governments commit not to abridge, either by constitution, legislation, or judicial interpretation, without due process. Though the scope of the term differs between countries, civil liberties of ...
groups such as the
Electronic Frontier Foundation The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is an American international non-profit digital rights group based in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1990 to promote Internet civil liberties. It provides funds for legal defense in court, ...
(EFF) have concerns that personal information on people's computers could readily be copied from users'
hard drive A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating hard disk drive platter, pla ...
s. Google Desktop version 3 contains certain features that raise serious security and privacy concerns. Specifically, the ''share across computers'' feature, which introduces the ability to search content from desktop to desktop, greatly increases the risk to users' privacy. If Google Desktop V.3 is set to allow ''Search Across Computers'', files on an indexed computer are copied to Google's servers. The potential for information stored on their computers to be accessed by others if they enable this feature of Google Desktop v. 3 on their computers should be seriously considered. The EFF advises against using this feature. Also, those who have confidential data on their work or home computers should not enable this feature. There are privacy laws and company policies that could be violated through the installation of this feature, specifically, SB 1386,
HIPAA The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA or the Kennedy– Kassebaum Act) is a United States Act of Congress enacted by the 104th United States Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton on August 21, ...
, FERPA, GLBA and Sarbanes-Oxley. Other more far reaching concerns arise around the packaging and end user license agreement – specifically the level of intrusion on the local machine and the disclaimers that users implicitly agree to future changes in the license agreement without actually being able to see them immediately.


Outlook indexing

There had been some issues with
Microsoft Outlook Microsoft Outlook is a personal information manager software system from Microsoft, available as a part of the Microsoft 365 software suites. Primarily popular as an email client for businesses, Outlook also includes functions such as Calendari ...
indexing. Deleted email listings were not removed and required re-installing Google Desktop for any new archived mail to be listed. Several versions have been released to patch the Outlook indexing. During the first half of 2009, a large number of Google Desktop users reported that the product stopped indexing suddenly, when the index file reached approximately 4GB in size. A full uninstall (including manually deleting the indexes) and then reinstall would fix the problem temporarily, but the problem would recur when the index file reached 4GB again. The problem has been resolved as of Google Desktop Search version 5.9. Currently, Google Desktop does not index email or contacts in Outlook 2010.


Thunderbird indexing

By default, Google Desktop does not index email in Thunderbird 3.


See also

* Alfred (Mac OS X) * Desktop search * DocFetcher (uses
Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...
) * Copernic Desktop Search * Everything *
Google Drive Google Drive is a file-hosting service and synchronization service developed by Google. Launched on April 24, 2012, Google Drive allows users to store files in the cloud (on Google servers), synchronize files across devices, and share files ...
* Launchy * List of desktop search engines * List of Google services and tools * Quicksilver (Mac OS X) * Recoll * Windows Search (component of Windows) * AnyTXT Searcher


References

{{Navigationbox Desktopsearch Desktop search engines Defunct internet search engines
Desktop A desktop traditionally refers to: * The surface of a desk (often to distinguish office appliances that fit on a desk, such as photocopiers and printers, from larger equipment covering its own area on the floor) Desktop may refer to various compu ...
MacOS Internet software Windows Internet software Internet software for Linux Freeware 2004 software