The Google Deskbar!
ClickZ reports:
Google is at work developing a desktop application designed to search personal computer hard drives, according to a report in today’s New York Times.
Citing “several people with knowledge of the company’s plans,” the article says Google has been working on the project, code-named Puffin, for about a year. It also says the new software will be offered as a free download, raising the possibility it could be supported by advertising — as are most of Google’s consumer search tools. Google didn’t respond to a request for comment by press time.
A Google desktop application is viewed primarily as a reaction to Microsoft’s moves in the search space. It would give Google a more prominent position on the largely Microsoft-dominated desktop. (Google already has a browser toolbar and a “deskbar” that provides Web search functionality outside the browser.) The application would head off Microsoft’s own plans to provide an improved search experience in its long-delayed next Windows version, code-named Longhorn.
Update: It has been released !
I’ll use this, whenever it’s out. I want a better way to search stuff on my computer. The thing is, MS will integrate well (and tightly) with their OS, so it’s a challenge for Google. Even now, people use MSN Search just because it’s the only thing they know about, and I think Google has become successful only because it was actually better than anything else. To defeat MS, you have to be much better, or you won’t have a chance.