William Computer Blog

Google released Google Desktop Beta 3

Google has released Google Desktop 3 Beta, with several new features.

You can now drag and drop panels from the Sidebar onto the desktop and leave it floating on your desktop. The reverse action is to “Dock to Sidebar”, which is selecting a panels floating on your desktop back into the Sidebar.

Another feature that is new to Google Desktop is the “Search Across Computers” which allows you to search through your hard drives on any computers. Imagine if you can search through the content of your hard drives from your laptop or using your computer at your office. In order to use this feature, you will need to enable it and have a Google Account (the same login you use for Gmail).

In order to share your indexed files between computers, Google Desktop must first copy the content of the file to servers located at Google. The “Search Across Computers” feature raises concern over privacy on some people.

I’m not worried about enabling this search feature because the data is automatically deleted from Google’s server and you can also manually remove all files from Google Desktop servers using the “Clear my Files from Google button”. Sensitive information you access via the web such as your Internet Banking information will not be shared with other computers because your HTTPS web history will never be shared across computers.

Are you worried if you enable this feature on your PC?

• February 9, 2006