Google has announced that its Google Desktop application is now available on the Linux operating system.Desktop, which allows users to "search their desktop and the web" as quickly and easily as they would with Google, can now be used on Linux, Mac OS X and Windows.
Among the major features of Google Desktop for Linux is Comprehensive Indexing, which gives users the option to search the full text of almost all of their computer's content.
This includes text, PDF, PS, source code, HTML files, email from Thunderbird, OpenOffice.org documents, Man and Info pages, folders, images, and music.
It can also recover previous versions of files which have accidentally been deleted.
The Linux Google Desktop offers users the Quick Search Box function, which the search favourite claims is the "fastest way to do web and desktop searches", with results displayed instantly as users type.
It also includes Gmail and web history search, with Google suggesting that "not all things users are looking for resides on their computers", while adding that Gmail and web history can be accessed offline.
"With this release, Google Desktop joins the Picasa, Google Earth and Google Toolbar for Firefox applications among Google's offerings for Linux," a Google statement read.
"In addition to creating products that run on Linux, Google supports the Linux community in a variety of ways, such as releasing open source code, running the Summer of Code and hosting tens of thousands of open source projects on Google Code."
