Be careful while using Google Desktop Search
October 15th, 2004 Leave a comment Visited 57 times, 3 so far today
Be careful while using Google Desktop Search
Google Desktop Search like most Google products makes an awesome first impression. I have tried other desktop search tools, but none of them can match the convenience that Google Desktop Search comes with. It is just a 450K download and it integrates in Google Search itself. The crawler eats quiet some RAM but the result is totally worth it.
However, the beta version does not come with any privacy protection tools. It depends on how you manage your system. To make it simple at this moment, they have designed the software to work for one Windows account per machine. Therefore, other users will not be able to search the system from their login profiles.
Nevertheless, most users rarely care about their own system’s security. Multiple people use same user profiles and if you install a utility like Google Desktop Search on such a system, you turn on the possibility of providing them a very fast and convenient way to find matter on your system. Integration in Google Search results makes it even more of a security hazard. You leave your system open for 10 minutes, and that would be enough for anyone out there to find anything on your system! Emails, Browsing sessions and private documents. Everything is available at the click of a button.
So, if you want the convenience of using Google Desktop Search, make sure that you keep in mind that what you want and what you do not want others to find on your system! Restrict the folders with private documents from Google Desktop Search crawlers and lock your system the next time you go for that coffee.
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October 17th, 2004 at 8:22 pm
[...] minates the search engine market, where once Yahoo! ruled user’s browser. With GMail and Google Desktop Search, they are entering prime time Microsoft domain. [...]
October 30th, 2004 at 7:05 am
[...] ing data indexing (a feature available on Win2000 and WinXP) is as good if not better than Google Desktop Search. With Microsoft planning its own desktop search [...]
October 15th, 2004 at 7:24 am
It would be great if Google used this as an opportunity to educate people about computer security. (ie. give them a basic tutorial in setting up a profile, or offer to do it for them.) Number 2 would obviously make some geeks unhappy if their teenager downloaded it and pressed the wrong button.
October 15th, 2004 at 7:32 am
yeah, very true… and about the second point… integration with google means, even if the third person do not know something like desktop search is enabled… if he searches for anything that remotely matches anything naughty on your system, he will see that on google search :lol: same thing applies for private documents.
October 15th, 2004 at 8:04 am
But what about linux, firefox, openoffice, or anything else non microsoft. I don’t use any of the apps that the google search tool indexes…
October 15th, 2004 at 8:15 am
yeah, i hate it too… i use opera browser and mail client…
http://news.techwhack.com/442/google-should-support-more-browsers-and-os/