GigaOM

Desktop search

Last Thursday Google launched Google Desktop Search.This was a very good news: I was desperate for such a tool, as the number of files and folders on my PC become unmanageable, and as Windows integrated search is sub-standard (to say the least).Inter…

More On Google & Other Desktop Search Stuff

More assorted reports and comments on Google’s new desktop search tool and other similar tools. They cover: a workaround for getting Firefox data tracked by GDS (the
acronym that I see in growing use for Google Desktop Search), one blog…

More On Google & Other Desktop Search Stuff

More assorted reports and comments on Google’s new desktop search tool and other similar tools. They cover: a workaround for getting Firefox data tracked by GDS (the
acronym that I see in growing use for Google Desktop Search), one blog…

More On Google & Other Desktop Search Stuff

More assorted reports and comments on Google’s new desktop search tool and other similar tools. They cover: a workaround for getting Firefox data tracked by GDS (the
acronym that I see in growing use for Google Desktop Search), one blog…

I currently use X1, and love what it does for me. I tried Babble, but had firewall issues with it at work, and have been kicking the tires of Google.

I have to agree with you, though, and found that it is not cutting it. I’ve done searches for people’s contact information - I have a large address book, and it’s easier to search by contact in X1 - and it neither returned emails or a contact card for the people.

Plus, I’m a security freak - the whole integrated into the Google search page is somewhat scary.

Agree with you Om. And Blinkx’s unobtrusive interface is certainly a pleasure to use. Plus, I don’t have to open Internet Explorer every time!

I’ve already thanked Google and sticking with Blinkx!

Om, I couldn’t agree more. blinkx is a far superior application. Perhaps because it is so successful, the google team rushed out their version. Bad move. I found Google very limited. Blinkx is working for me.

I hear that. blinkx is king and I’m staying with it. Sorry Google

I rarely run Windows anymore so I’ve yet to use either service, but allow me to suggest that if Blinkx wants to be relevant and more than just an industry footnote, they should get real serious about partnering with a large audience/sub base player, otherwise their future prospects are slim to nil.

RE: “Plus, I’m a security freak - the whole integrated into the Google search page is somewhat scary.”

Google Desktop (GD) runs as a server on your local PC and listens on localhost, which is only accessible locally. The most that is passed to Google is a referrer which could include path information in a document, but that is no more information than you clicking on an external link within a local document. The referrer that is passed to Google is not accessible since only the local PC has access to localhost.

The search results from a Google search works similar to dogpile.com, which queries multiple search engines simultaneously. The dogpile request to Google is independent of the Dogpile’Äôs request to Overture, MSN and Yahoo for the same search. The information gotten from each search engine is kept separate on dogpile’Äôs server and merged before sending it back to your browser. In the case of GD, a plug-in installed in your browser fetches the results from google.com’Äôs index and your local GD index and merges the results before displaying it ’Äì a very clever design.

BTW, you can make your GD index remotely searchable using port forwarding, but if someone compromises your system it’Äôs your fault for opening up remote access. If you do need secure remote access to the GD index you can install sshd on the PC and do port forwarding over an encrypted ssh tunnel.

I have never tried Blinkx, but I’Äôve had bad experiences with applications that attach themselves to the title bar of all of your applications so I am a little hesitant. GD more than satisfies my needs.

Blinkx would be great if it worked…doesn’t seem to want to search my NAS drives…and doesn’t find my email on a remote drive…

i think blinkx right now works only with the desktop hard drives and the web. i think you should drop them a note and check with them about when they will announce NAS support

Om…Thank You…that explains that problem…sure would be nice if it worked with NAS as I keep everything there…makes it a lot easier.

rt

by the way i tried with firewire and USB drives, and it works just fine with those drives. strange but i think they can extend the utility by scanning the network drives.

For some reason, I have not been able to get Blinkx to work on my computer - every time I install it, my computer hangs before the indexing process completes. I have taken Blinkx for a spin at least a dozen times, but no love so far.

Since many people here have gotten it to work for them, there is something peculiar about my machine which shows up only w/ the Blinkx beta.

Unfortunate, because most users seem to like it, and one thing I certainly find lacking in GD is the ability to sort search results according to criteria other than relevancy - date created, title, size etc.

Blinkx launched it’s latest version of it’s contextual search product,They’ve added features that allow a user to initiate a search by dropping a file into a folder. This feature is called Smart Folders,Microsoft and Apple have been talking about this for years looks like Blinkx has beat them. Om commented that Blinkx was like a mercedes compared to Google’s Yugo you must agree the new version of Blinkx is like a Aston Martin.

Remote acces to GDS could be easily done with DNKA tool:
(link)