- Quick specs
- Price: Free
- Operating system: Windows XP/Vista
- Date added: September 04, 2009
- Total Downloads: 380,486
- Downloads last week: 2,209
- See full specifications
- CNET editors' rating: stars
- Average user rating: stars out of 341 votes
See all user reviews
CNET editors' review
Reviewed by: CNET Staff
Simple, small, and free, Google Desktop indexes your hard drive the way Google's own servers index the Web. Your search results are returned in a Web-page format that looks very similar to the Google Web site. The application's sidebar regularly updates the status of your e-mail, photos, RSS feeds, and weather.
Although the initial indexing period can crawl--especially if you have a lot of e-mail, contacts, chat transcripts, and documents for it to parse through--it's well worth the wait to be able to search any of them from a text entry box that's installed next to the Quick Launch bar. You'll still find the same basic gadget content: a music player, sports and stock tickers, a file shredder, and wackier items like an interactive plant. We like the Desktop sidebar's built-in to-do list, notepad, and the capability to integrate other gadgets with ease.
Version 5 is fully compatible with Windows Vista, emulating the rounded corners and translucent panels and capable of overriding the native Vista sidebar. There's also cross-indexing for multiple machines and sharing panel items directly with friends. The sharpest new feature is the preview window for search results, which saves a lot of time on clicking, opening, and closing.
Other programs with lighter feature sets may offer quicker and easier indexing and searching. Nevertheless, the efficient and feature-rich Google Desktop Search stands as yet another feather in the company's quite decorated cap.
Watch the CNET video review of Google Desktop:
Publisher's description
From Google :Google Desktop will offer full text search over your email, computer files, chats, and the web pages you've viewed. By making your computer searchable, it puts your information easily within your reach and frees you from having to manually organize your files, emails, and bookmarks. It introduces new ways to access relevant and timely information. When you view a web page in Internet Explorer, it caches or stores its content so that you can later look at that same version of the page, even if its live content has changed or you're offline. It organizes email search results into conversations, so that all email messages in the same thread are grouped into a single search result.
Version 5.9.909 adds support for Windows XP SP3 and Firefox 3, and adds a preference to display the deskbar on the left of the taskbar.
What's new in this version:
Version 5.9.909 adds support for Windows XP SP3 and Firefox 3, and adds a preference to display the deskbar on the left of the taskbar.
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User reviews
- Average user rating: 3.2 stars out of 341 votes
- My rating: 0 stars Write review
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Showing 5 of 34 user reviewsSee all 34 user reviews
This software version | All versions -
Version: Google Desktop 5.9.909.2235
"The best search tool out there"
Pros: Takes 1 second to search for all my files on the computer while the windows default search takes 20 min.
Cons: Takes up lots of resource
Summary: Use this if you have a fast computer
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Version: Google Desktop 5.9.909.2235
"not worth it... makes my system slow"
Pros: fast search results on your system
Cons: makes my system really slow at times... the indexing thing keeps happening and i just hate when it freezes my system... its also a pain pausing again and again the indexing for sometime because it is not letting me work efficiently...
Summary: i m better off without it... atleast my system doesn't slow down as much as it used to do...
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Version: Google Desktop 5.9.909.2235
"forcing a piggyback program isnot a way to make friends"
Pros: don't know yet. It didn't crash me?
Cons: the piggyback program that is really not necessary and makes me wonder what else it does that I don't know about and won't like
Summary: alter the program to not need the loggin program that it says is necessary but doesn't do what you what it to and is mostly turned off to be safe.
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Version: Google Desktop 5.9.909.2235
Pros: Pretty Sidebar, but not a big improvement over the Vista sidebar. I haven't played with the search beyond what the Google web page does.
Cons: Seems to suck a lot of CPU cycles.
Summary: Google Desktop is still on my Vista laptop, but I'm not using it right now. I may play with it later.
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Version: Google Desktop 5.9.909.2235
Pros: not a thing
Cons: If all it does is search desktop or internet, there are easier programs to work with. It wasn't of any use to me.
- See all 34 user reviews Write review
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