Google's desktop: the fast/slow dilemma
I've installed Google's new desktop search engine (see my post yesterday). So far I'm impressed, though it does seem to have slowed down Esmeralda a bit, and I'm not sure how long I can live with that. At least I can turn it off from the toolbar at the bottom of Esme's monitor when I want to burn rubber.
When you search for something in the normal Google bar, up come related items on your computer along with web links. As you can see (I hope) from the fuzzy screenshot above, when I did a test run with the keywords "Cardiff Giant", Google instantaneously gave me all the usual URLs plus a link to the 46 references on my own computer (the aforementioned lovely Esmeralda), and two additional links that showed me very recent things: the first being one of my own Word docs with a reference to Cardiff Giant, and the other being a Wikipedia page that I had opened an hour or two before. If I'd had an email or text file with the keywords in them, they would show up in the list as well.
Although the Google link I gave yesterday didn't mention it, I was delighted to discover that the desktop tool also finds images in its lightning-fast search, showing me the images of the Cardiff Giant I have (another good reason to label images well). That's great from my POV as I'm always looking for something in what I guess by now must be tens of thousands of images on Esme.
Apart from maybe a 10 - 15 per cent decrease in computer speed when the desktop app is running (or, so I think, but I'm not entirely sure – how can one be?), what I see as the biggest drawback would be for people who want privacy. As I live alone, there's no one looking over my shoulder, except maybe God. But the possibilities of something private showing up in the new-style Google search are endless, and easy to imagine. With that caveat, and a certain acceptance of decline in processing speed in exchange for a brilliant desktop search, I'm happy with the new tool.
As for the extended privacy problem vis a vis Echelon and the CIA, I doubt that there's anything those guys can't find through your Net connection anyway. So even though there are rumours of Google-CIA connections, and any self-respecting intelligence agency would obviously have recruited Google by now, I wouldn't sweat it. Forget about privacy. You've had none for years.
I've installed Google's new desktop search engine (see my post yesterday). So far I'm impressed, though it does seem to have slowed down Esmeralda a bit, and I'm not sure how long I can live with that. At least I can turn it off from the toolbar at the bottom of Esme's monitor when I want to burn rubber.
When you search for something in the normal Google bar, up come related items on your computer along with web links. As you can see (I hope) from the fuzzy screenshot above, when I did a test run with the keywords "Cardiff Giant", Google instantaneously gave me all the usual URLs plus a link to the 46 references on my own computer (the aforementioned lovely Esmeralda), and two additional links that showed me very recent things: the first being one of my own Word docs with a reference to Cardiff Giant, and the other being a Wikipedia page that I had opened an hour or two before. If I'd had an email or text file with the keywords in them, they would show up in the list as well.
Although the Google link I gave yesterday didn't mention it, I was delighted to discover that the desktop tool also finds images in its lightning-fast search, showing me the images of the Cardiff Giant I have (another good reason to label images well). That's great from my POV as I'm always looking for something in what I guess by now must be tens of thousands of images on Esme.
Apart from maybe a 10 - 15 per cent decrease in computer speed when the desktop app is running (or, so I think, but I'm not entirely sure – how can one be?), what I see as the biggest drawback would be for people who want privacy. As I live alone, there's no one looking over my shoulder, except maybe God. But the possibilities of something private showing up in the new-style Google search are endless, and easy to imagine. With that caveat, and a certain acceptance of decline in processing speed in exchange for a brilliant desktop search, I'm happy with the new tool.
As for the extended privacy problem vis a vis Echelon and the CIA, I doubt that there's anything those guys can't find through your Net connection anyway. So even though there are rumours of Google-CIA connections, and any self-respecting intelligence agency would obviously have recruited Google by now, I wouldn't sweat it. Forget about privacy. You've had none for years.
Pip Wilson posted item above at 1:28 PM | Permalink
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