I can’t believe that after eight years of using Google Desktop I have not written about it yet.  So here we go.

If you go to the main Google Desktop site (desktop.google.com) you don’t have a lot of information, much like the standard Google search page.  Basically it gives you the download link.  However, at the bottom of the page you have text links to Features (some of which I will cover here) and Gadgets.  There are a couple of other links that you probably don’t need to use but check them if you wish.

The reason that I think this is an excellent feature is that it allows you to find most any document on your computer.  Once you finish setting up your Options when you use the search bar your computer will be able to check your email, chat history, browsing history, Word and/or Excel files and a plethora of others…all at your discretion.

One aside here, windows Vista also offers this built in but (sorry Microsoft) in my opinion, the Google search is much better.

On my computer I have all of my searches set up.  I just searched for “Google Desktop” and here is what I found on my computer; 30 emails, 15 files, 28 web history, 0 chats (I don’t chat very much), and 0 other.  The first two files found were Word documents.  The first being this column that I am typing right now and the second was a column I wrote in 2003.  In the older column I just happened to mention Google Desktop while writing about another program that I don’t use any longer.  I really have not typed “Google Desktop” that often so I just searched again and included the quotes around the term.  This time I found more realistic numbers; three emails, two files and six web histories.  So when you use it don’t forget quotes on multiple terms or you could find more.  It will also keep deleted emails in memory so that you can find those in the future, if the term was mentioned in an old email.

Now I haven’t even mentioned the ability to have the Google Sidebar added to your desktop, which is full of Gadgets you can choose from.  Personally I don’t use it but that doesn’t mean that it is bad.  I just don’t like to give up the desktop real estate space.  You can also choose to “auto-hide” the bar so that it pops open when you hover your mouse over it.

I highly recommend you try out Google Desktop if you haven’t before.  It is well worth the price.  Oh, the price - free, need I say more?