In its first big post-IPO maneuver, Google Inc. Thursday is releasing free software that allows consumers to search for e-mails and files on their computers.
With the much-anticipated launch of its Desktop Search software, Google is addressing a chronic consumer headache and extending its reach from the Web to consumers' hard drives. It moves Google more squarely into Microsoft Corp.'s turf, since the software giant has dominated anything to do with hard-drive based files and e-mail to date and plans its own competing product.
Google Desktop Search lets users search within Microsoft Office and text files on their hard drives, e-mails, AOL instant messenger chats, and Web sites they have visited in the past. Once consumers install the software, it creates an index of their files to allow for speedy searches. When the user then conducts searches on Google's site, it shows results from their own files in a small box above the Web search results. They can also conduct searches of just their own files when not connected to the Internet using an interface that looks like Google's Web site.
With the much-anticipated launch of its Desktop Search software, Google is addressing a chronic consumer headache and extending its reach from the Web to consumers' hard drives. It moves Google more squarely into Microsoft Corp.'s turf, since the software giant has dominated anything to do with hard-drive based files and e-mail to date and plans its own competing product.
Google Desktop Search lets users search within Microsoft Office and text files on their hard drives, e-mails, AOL instant messenger chats, and Web sites they have visited in the past. Once consumers install the software, it creates an index of their files to allow for speedy searches. When the user then conducts searches on Google's site, it shows results from their own files in a small box above the Web search results. They can also conduct searches of just their own files when not connected to the Internet using an interface that looks like Google's Web site.
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