Tech Shout!

Yesterday, Google released Google Desktop for Mac. This release happens to be a first for Google, as well as for Apple, as the search engine giant has made its desktop tool available to Mac users for the first time. So now Mac users can use Google on the Mac platform.

Previously, Mac users already had a built-in search tool from Apple known as Spotlight. Google has said that its desktop tool will work just fine with the Mac OS X 10.4 feature.

According to Rose Yao, product manager, “We designed Google Desktop for Mac to be a companion for Spotlight. Google Desktop searches users’ Web history, and you can set it up to search Gmail too.”

Besides, Google Desktop will also utilize any Spotlight plug-ins on users’ systems. Thus, there won’t be any need for developers to rewrite plug-ins specifically for Google. Moreover, the application from Google also respects Spotlight’s privacy list and will not search those items.

According to Google, using its Desktop quick search it very much like launching a widget sans the need to go into the dashboard. Two taps on the Command key will bring up a small search window. As soon as the user begins typing in search keywords, Google begins showing the results, whether it’s a document or an application.

The results window shows the last 10 items that match your search query. If you don’t find what you are looking for, you can click a link on the bottom of the results to see all of the items found.

This launches the user’s default Web browser and opens a page that looks exactly like the Google search page on the Web. The results page shows how many of each type of document Google Desktop found. It shows results for e-mail, Web history, files, media and others.

The results page in a browser also has a search box, so users can continue to search their hard drives if they choose. Users also have the option to search the Web for their queries.

If users go to Google’s online search page and have Google Desktop installed, they will notice a new search criteria. “Desktop” has been added to Web, Images, News and Maps. If users do a search and click on Desktop, Google will show the local results it found.

Google representatives have confirmed that during an integrated search, a computer’s content is not sent to Google. Further, Google does not see or record Google Desktop results without the user’s permission. If a user is still concerned, he can choose to disable the integration option in preferences.

Google Desktop can also help you find deleted files. According to the company, Google Desktop creates cached copies, or snapshots, of files and other items each time they are viewed and stores these copies on a Mac’s hard drive. As a result, users can often use Desktop to find prior versions of files or ones that have been accidentally deleted.

However, Google has said that there is no Gadget integration in this current version. The company does have plans though to include Gadget integration in later versions.