For those of you not aware, Google Desktop is basically Google's search engine that runs locally on a PC. Google describe it as, "Info when you want it, right on your desktop" and it includes the following features:
- Quickly search your computer for emails, web history, and files.
- View news, photos and more anywhere on your desktop.
- Add Google Gadgets to customize your desktop and Sidebar.
Others aren't quite so impressed by Google's Desktop feature, for example Kevin Bankston, Staff Attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation:
"Google expects its users to now trust it with the contents of their personal computers. If you use the Search Across Computers feature and don't configure Google Desktop very carefully - and most people won't - Google will have copies of your tax returns, love letters, business records, financial and medical files, and whatever other text-based documents the Desktop software can index."
Those less concerned by the feature point out that it's an opt-in as you have to download it and by doing so you are agreeing to Google's Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.
Anyway, back to the issue of Google's philosophy. Those of you that use Google on a daily basis may have noticed the following advert in the occasional SERP in recent times:
Simply interesting experiments with the SERPS layout? The screen shot certainly shows that Google is looking to push the Google Desktop forwards and is a clear sign of the search engine's interest in improving uptake of the fourth verion of the desktop software.
