Google invades computer desktop with hard drive-searching tool

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- Google Inc. on Thursday became the first tech heavyweight to tackle the daunting task of uncluttering computers, introducing a program that quickly scours hard drives for documents, e-mails, instant messages and past Web searches.

With the free desktop program, Google hopes to build upon the popularity of its Internet-leading search engine and become even more indispensable to the millions of people who entrust the Mountain View-based company to find virtually anything online.

The new product, available at http://desktop.google.com, ups the ante in Google's intensifying battle with software giant Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc., which owns the world's second most popular search engine.

Google's desktop invasion heralds a momentous step into a crucial realm -- the challenge of managing the infoglut that has accumulated during the past decade as society becomes more tethered to increasingly powerful computers.

Although its desktop program can be used exclusively offline to probe hard drives, Google designed it to run in a browser so it will meld with its online search engine. Google.com visitors who have the new program installed on their computer will see a "desktop" tab above the search engine toolbar and all their search results will include a section devoted to the hard drive in addition to the Web.

The desktop search program could be the bridge to a day when Google begins offering consumers the option of storing some files directly on the company's own computer servers, said Danny Sullivan, editor of Search Engine Watch. "It would be the next logical step if this is a success," he said.

As it is, the desktop search program provides Google with a powerful magnet to lure traffic from its chief rivals online search rivals, Microsoft's MSN and Yahoo Inc., both of which have been improving their technology.

"Other major search engines will undoubtedly launch similar offerings in the next few months but they will have to match Google's offering to keep their customers happy or best it to gain new converts," Forrester Research analyst Charlene Li wrote in a report Thursday.

A smattering of lesser-known companies, such as X1 Technologies of Pasadena, already offer desktop search programs. Google is the first company among high-tech's household names to try to make it easier for people sift through the information mishmash on computer hard drives. It dispenses with the confinement of Microsoft's current model of files and folders.

Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft has been working on a desktop search program for several years only to be trumped by Google. AOL and another search engine maker, Ask Jeeves, are reportedly close to entering the fray while Yahoo has discussed the possibility of developing a desktop search program.

Google is betting the program will expand its search engine audience and encourage even more online searches than it already processes -- a pattern that would yield more advertising revenue, the company's main moneymaker.

The company's financial success already has turned its stock into a hot commodity, although Thursday's news didn't provide a lift. Google's shares fell $1.66 to $139.24 during Thursday's trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The stock has surged by 64 percent since its initial public offering price less than two months ago.

Leery of raising privacy concerns that have shadowed its recently introduced e-mail service, Google is stressing that the desktop search program doesn't provide a peephole into the hard drive, even when the product connects with the online search engine.

"It's totally private," Mayer said. "Google does not know what happens when the hard drive is searched."

By default, the program will track performance, bugs and other metrics without recording personal data, the company says.

Pam Dixon, executive director for the World Privacy Forum, said she will withhold judgment until she thoroughly reviews the new program. "The key question will be if this thing ever phones home to the mother ship."

Despite her reservations, Dixon expects Google's desktop search program to have mass appeal. "I think most people think of their computer hard drives as these black holes of information, so this could be of some real value," she said.

Google began working on the program, code named "Fluffy Bunny," about a year ago, Mayer said, in response to a familiar refrain: "Why can't I search my computer as easily as I can search the Web?"

Currently compatible only with the Windows operating system, Google's 400-kilobyte desktop program requires about 10 minutes to download on a dial-up connection and takes some five or six hours to index a computer's hard drive.

Each program user can select the types of information to be indexed and searched.

The product can pore through the files using Microsoft Office applications and several types of e-mail programs, including Microsoft's Outlook and Hotmail and Yahoo.

Google's desktop search still doesn't work with the company's new e-mail service, called Gmail. If desired, the program automatically saves all AOL instant message conversations and creates a cache of all Web pages surfed by a computer.

Google's desktop search program is so powerful that analysts cautioned computer users to carefully consider what kind of material they want indexed, particularly if they're sharing a computer with family, friends or office colleagues.

Google plans eventually to offer some kind of password-protection to restrict desktop searches for individual users.

"People are going to have to think pretty carefully about this," Li said during an interview. "There are some things that you probably don't want indexed on a computer."