Google made a pre-emptive strike today ahead of Microsoft and Yahoo!, announcing a beta of its forthcoming desktop search on its corporate blog.
Media coverage is intense and opinions are varied.
One Slashdot user commented, "Being able to google my machine would be the best thing this side of perpetual motion."
Over at Search Engine Watch, the focus is squarely on privacy and security issues that will come to the forefront with the advent of desktop search (Google's or anyone else's).
From the Google Desktop Search Privacy Policy:
Your copy of Google Desktop Search includes a unique application number. When you install Google Desktop Search, this number and a message indicating whether the installation succeeded is sent back to Google so that we can make the software work better. Additionally, when Google Desktop Search automatically checks to see if a new version is available, the current version number and the unique application number are sent to Google...The unique application number is required for Google Desktop Search to work and cannot be disabled.Google Desktop Search uses the same cookie as Google.com and other Google services. If you send us non-personal information about your Google Desktop Search use, we may be able to make Google services work better by associating this information with other Google services you use and vice versa. You can opt out of sending such non-personal information to Google during the installation process or from the application preferences at any time.
Now seems like an apt time to remind ourselves that technology is a tool. It is not intrinsically good or bad; rather, it is how we use choose to use it that matters.
