Google Desktop Redux

Google has a weird (if arguably admirable) habit of saying tools it creates are in beta long after they're already indispensable--Google News is still supposedly in test mode, for instance--but its Google Desktop hard-drive search utility is now officially a shipping product. As you may recall, the beta version prompted lots of gripes, most notably because its search was so thorough that it could pull up stuff from encrypted Web pages--which is a worrisome feature in the case of public terminals or any PC that's not under lock and key 24 hours a day. In fact, we published a news story that was lukewarm at best about the product.

The new version of GDS includes some enhancements that weren't in the initial release, including support for Firefox and the Thunderbird e-mail program, a search toolbar that can float or sit in the Windows Taskbar, and the ability to find text within PDF files. It also addresses security concerns, but only sort of. It doesn't index password-protected Word and Excel files, for one thing. And you can now tell it not to index encrypted pages in a PC's Web history. But that latter option (like all GDS settings) isn't password-protected. Which likely means that a smart, persistent snoop could use this utility to rummage through your browser-based e-mail or other private data.

I like Google Desktop Search's mean-and-lean feel and neat integration with the search engine's other services--competitive desktop search programs from AskJeeves, MSN, and Yahoo feel overcomplicated. So I'm going to give the new version a second chance, at least for a while...