Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[escaflo]

http://desktop.google.com/

I am just wondering if anybody have actually tried it.

I don't have enough documents on my computer to actually try and see how it works and neither do I use Outlook or Internet Explorer. As such, this is not really that useful to me yet. But I am just wondering if anybody got any comments about it.

[LonWar]

Looks kinda neat...

MC would be a better document handler though....

[JimH]

I downloaded it.  It's still indexing.  It's extremely simple, but blindingly fast when you search.

[Marty3d]

Seems similar to Copernic's Desktop search. They offer contacts, pdf, images, audio and video and search as well... Only wished someone of these could index more, like Firefox history and bookmarks, Microsft OneNote etc...
http://www.copernic.com/en/products/desktop-search/index.html

[LonWar]

I downloaded it.  It's still indexing.  It's extremely simple, but blindingly fast when you search.

Indexing for around 2 hrs now....

Ready to give up.... It's a neat idea....

[salsbst1]

Hopefully they will eventually support for other browsers and email clients... or is there an API for us to do so ourselves?

[paulr]

Shoot!  It's not currently compatible with ESET NOD32 Antivirus...  Guess I'll have to wait until they fix it.

I've tried Copernic's, but it requires me to suspend computation in BOINC in order to work and I was hoping this one would work without interaction.

[Marty3d]

What's BOINC??

[paulr]

BOINC = Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing.  http://boinc.berkeley.edu/

It's the new distributed computing platform that many projects are switching to:  SETI, ClimatePrediction, Large Hadron Collider, Predictor (protien related diseases)...

It takes advantage of unused CPU cycles to compute for these projects.  Basically, you are assisting these projects in their science calculations.

[JimH]

I spent some more time with the google search program today.  I think it's a smashing success.  It's a big event in the computing world.  It may change a lot of little things about how we work.

For those of you who've tried it, how can MC adapt to it?  Right now it searches for jpg and mp3 files and probably other audio and video.  You can search for mp3 and see all the mp3 files on your PC.  If you click on one, it launches MC (assuming that MC is your default player for MP3).

Maybe MC should be invisible when this happens?  Or start a very small mini view?

Your thoughts are very welcome.  Thanks.

[LonWar]

For document handling to be really successful in MC, it will need to be able to monitor folders... THis google program runs in the background and you do not need to manually add files.

I think with a little work MC will blow this away.

[JimH]

MC11 does monitor folders.

[LonWar]

It does??

Where? I know it will keep the folders that you want to scan, but you still have to press import... Don't you?

[Jaguu]

Some thoughts about the way MC works compared to Desktop search programs:

One of the big differences between audio/images/video and documents is indexing. With the first type you need only tags, with the second type you need indexing as well.

I imported my whole home directory into MC11 and played around a little bit. These were my experiences:

1) Not all my documents or other data were imported, many extensions were not, especially extiension url.

2) Right now I don't think I want to make anything than a very basic effort to tag all documents in my home directory. There is plenty of stuff there that I filed for convenience only, stuff that I probably will never use in my life and a lot of junk. If I save a single web-site, I have plenty of small jpg files that get imported that I do not need or want to manage inside MC11.

3) This means MC11 would need to have a very powerful autotagging feature. It should be able to determine the folder tree structure of the file and enter some more tags automatically than the ones it does right now.

4) With that I still cant search for anything inside a document. To do this there needs to be a powerful indexing structure, so that I might be able to search through document contents. Without that I don't think the document management feature will ever be really powerful.  I am experimenting right now with two such programs. One is Lookout, an Outlook addon which allows you not only to search through all your Outlook files (Which Outlook cant do, even Bill Gates installed Lookout on his Notebook!), but also all document folders as well. The other one is Copernic desktop search, which is kind of similar to MC11 Library browser, but includes a powerful indexiing mechanism (Both are freeware!)

The tagging mechanism of MC is really powerful and I think it is a tool far advanced on the market.  But I think in the future we will need some intelligent merge of indexing and tagging.
This might be a big challenge for JimH and Co.

[Matt]

4) With that I still cant search for anything inside a document.

MC indexes the contents of documents.  We don't search that field by default because of speed considerations.

Search using [Text]=... and you can search inside the document with MC 11.

[IanG]

4) With that I still cant search for anything inside a document.

MC indexes the contents of documents.  We don't search that field by default because of speed considerations.

Search using [Text]=... and you can search inside the document with MC 11.

That looks very good!   Is it possible to force indexing of arbitrary file types?  I can put any file type in the library using drag 'n' drop, but it looks like only the "importable" file types are indexed.  And while I'm back on my hobby horse, any chance of allowing import of user defined file types?  Please?

Ian G.

[Jaguu]

Thanks Matt,

didn't know that indexing was possible. Will try it out.

Still waiting to be able to import files of type url (Links). I have scattered them everywhere as I am moving to have one single folder for a topic or project and keep everything together there including url files that used to be in IE-Favorites.

[JimH]

Are the extensions url or html?  html files should be imported.

[IanG]

MC indexes the contents of documents.  We don't search that field by default because of speed considerations.

Search using [Text]=... and you can search inside the document with MC 11.

Which documents?  I can only find text inside html files - they're displaying with different icons though, so it looks like there's a variety of file types.

Ian G.

[Jaguu]

JimH,

I think I found out:

url files (those found under Favorites) get imported and you find them in the My Computer section, but they do not show up in the Media Library.

Also, the import screen displays an entry "Webpage files", while the Options>File Asscociations does not.

Some kind of options to include extensions and associated programs of our own would be a great help. Right now only about 4500 out of 6000 files from  my Home Folder were imported. Many extensions belong to some general business software that stores data in my  home folder).

Are Office file tags written back to their respective files? Does modifying the "name" field in a WinWord file in the library also modify the equivalent Winword attribute?

[JimH]

No tags are written to doc files at this time.

My Computer is just like Windows Explorer.  You can see any file there,  not just those in your library.

What is the extension of the files that don't get imported?

[Omni]

No tags are written to doc files at this time.

And hopefully not ever, even in the future.

My Computer is just like Windows Explorer.  You can see any file there,  not just those in your library.

Caveat:  This is only true if you are in "All Media" mode.  If you are in one of the constrained modes, even "My Computer" gets filtered.

[Jaguu]

I can see htm,html files in Media Library, but no files with extension url. which I can see under My Computer.

[JimH]

Back to the topic of the new google PC search, any ideas on how MC should use it or be used by it?

[KeystoneCop]

OT,  BUT  

If someone would make thumbnails of pdf, word ,excel documents I think they would have a winner.  Visual is much better than remembering words even though both are important.

I'm so lost
I'm barely here
I wish I could explain myself
But words escape me
It's too late
To save me
You're too late
You're too late

[Michel Lefebvre]

You may want to read this article about concerns about privacy reagrding Google Desktop.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/10/15/google_desktop_privacy/

Before downloading it, I decided to read the privacy policy and realized that while you can opt out of sending most information about your files back to Google, you cannot totally turn it off. Plus, every download is serialized so they can connect back to you....

See http://desktop.google.com/privacypolicy.html

After reading that, I decided that I prefered to stick with Copernic after all.... :-)

Michel.

[pank2002]

4) With that I still cant search for anything inside a document.

MC indexes the contents of documents.  We don't search that field by default because of speed considerations.

Search using [Text]=... and you can search inside the document with MC 11.

This does not seam to work for me using word files... or any text file. There isn't shown anything in the text field in tiles view.

Should .doc-files be searchable?

I tried to search text=rasmus (my name, in top of nearly each and every document I have on the computer.) Nothing turned up. These files were imported using the import medias function.

I'm using build 95, but as far as I remember there haven't been any major documents updates which should have an effect. I'd really like to search to content of my documents, ti would be pretty useful.

[Veazer]

You may want to read this article about concerns about privacy reagrding Google Desktop.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/10/15/google_desktop_privacy/

Before downloading it, I decided to read the privacy policy and realized that while you can opt out of sending most information about your files back to Google, you cannot totally turn it off. Plus, every download is serialized so they can connect back to you....

See http://desktop.google.com/privacypolicy.html

After reading that, I decided that I prefered to stick with Copernic after all.... :-)

Michel.

That article definitely scared me enough to steer me away from trying it.

It would be interesting to filter the network traffic and see what info goes back to google.

[IanG]

Back to the topic of the new google PC search, any ideas on how MC should use it or be used by it?

Not from me, I'm afraid!  I found the Google tool didn't fit my way of working - too limited in the types of files it indexed and too little control over the searches themselves (no boolean or proximity operators).  

Ian G.

[JimH]

I split the part of this thread that wandered off into other search programs.  That part is here:

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?board=3;action=display;threadid=24143

[Doof]

You may want to read this article about concerns about privacy reagrding Google Desktop.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/10/15/google_desktop_privacy/

Before downloading it, I decided to read the privacy policy and realized that while you can opt out of sending most information about your files back to Google, you cannot totally turn it off. Plus, every download is serialized so they can connect back to you....

See http://desktop.google.com/privacypolicy.html

After reading that, I decided that I prefered to stick with Copernic after all.... :-)

Michel.

I guess I don't see what's to be afraid of here.  Unless I misunderstood the fears expressed in that article, this little blurb on Google's site should put those fears to rest. The results from indexing your hard drive do not leave your PC.

When you search on Google after installing Google Desktop Search, you may see results from Desktop Search appear on your Google results page, just above your usual Google Web Search results. Here's what's happening:

Desktop Search allows you to simultaneously send your query to two different programs and locations. One query goes to Google, which performs a standard Google Web Search. A duplicate query goes to the Desktop Search application running on your computer, which searches the information the application has indexed for you. Desktop Search intercepts Google's results page before you see it and adds your Desktop Search results just above your web results so you can see both at once.

These combined results can be seen only from your own computer; your computer's content is never sent to Google (or anyone else).

[Magicland]

I was talking with the Google people at the DigitalLife show in NY (MusicMatch was there, I was hoping some MediaCenter folks would have a booth, but no such luck), and it was really impressive. So impressive that I installed it as soon as I got home. I had some concerns about it interfering with other programs, since  it's constantly indexing, but it hasn't proven to be an issue. It's really a lot easier to use than, say, the history of IE, as you can search for anything that was on a website you viewed even if you don't remember the name of the site. It also lets you view either the actual site, or a cached copy of the site, so you can use it even with no internet connectivity, such as on a flight. It makes finding old email's a breeze, too, without having to hunt through hundreds just to find what you want. Like others, I wish it would display image thumbnails, and I'd like to be able to turn off its indexing until I want to turn it back on, not just for 15 minutes or so. It's still beta, so if enough people want changes such as these, they might happen. I've no idea how it can be used or integrated with MC, but it is really neat.

[MarkCoutinho]

Back to Jim's question: I really would love MC to use the Google-technique or lay-out.
It's so easy and simple.

[Michel Lefebvre]

Here's another article about Google Desktop and security:

"Phishing may have hit Google users."

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1070459,0003.htm

Michel.