subject: Google 'sidebar' brings web to desktop posted: Mon, 22 Aug 2005 09:52:39 +0100
[OK here's my question. Say a single employee at one of my customers
installs this Google desktop search. They have a mapped drive to the
fileserver, which contains information on all of the customers of the
company they work for. Will the Google search access their mapped
network drive and index the entire contents of the fileserver? If
so, what will it do with the information then? I have a hard enough
time keeping my users PCs free from spyware. I am genuinely
frightened of the potential for information leakage when a powerful,
intrusive search tool run by the world's biggest search engine is
packed in a brightly coloured box and marketed to your average Joe. -
Stu]
Google is expected to launch a new product today that could give it a
significant presence on hundreds of millions of Windows users'
desktops, even when they are not online.
The announcement could also help sustain Google's share price, which
fell after last week's surprise announcement that the US-based search
company plans to raise a $4bn (£2.2bn) war chest by selling shares.
Google Desktop is a sidebar designed to take up a thin column on the
right hand side of a Windows screen. The sidebar includes a number of
components such as spaces for news (from Google News), photos, web
clips, notes, share prices and weather reports. These are updated
automatically when users are online.
Google is expected to add other features, and independent software
houses will also be able to develop plug-ins.
Nikhil Bhatla, the Google Desktop product manager, said the sidebar
was "automatically personalised based on the web pages you view".
Instead of you having to go to the web, the web comes to you. "You
don't have to lift a finger to find out what's going on," he said.
Google Desktop incorporates an upgraded version of Google's Desktop
Search software. This lets users search their own hard drives, plus
network drives, as well as searching the web via Google. It also
indexes data from Microsoft's Outlook email and information
management program, Microsoft Office and some other software.
This raises privacy implications, but all the data is held on the
local PC, where it can be encrypted, not on the web. However, while
Google Desktop links to Google News and Google's web-based Gmail
service, it does not show any advertisements. Mr Bhatla said: "At
this moment, we don't have any plans to show ads or monetise the
product."
The new sidebar continues the Google tradition of targeting people
using Microsoft Windows 2000 and XP, who make up the bulk of the
desktop market. Other recent launches include Google Earth, which is
also Windows only, and a Blogger add-on for Microsoft Word.
Although Microsoft provides extensive support for Windows developers,
it may have mixed feelings in this case. Google Desktop implements a
number of ideas that Microsoft proposed in 2002 in a sidebar planned
for the next version of Windows. Microsoft is not expected to launch
Windows Vista until late next year.
· Jack Schofield has been using a test version of Google Desktop
under a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).
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* Origin: [adminz] tech, security, support (192:168/0.2)
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