Lately Google has been very active releasing upgrades to desktop web applications. The latest upgrade to Google Desktop brings it to version 3.0.
Those who have been using Google Desktop know that it offers quick way to search for desktop content along with web. It also offers ad-dons called panels that integrate into email, news, scratchpad, calendar, weather and more.
The newest feature is called “Search Across Computers” and if enabled allows Google desktop to store index of users desktop content on Google’s servers for search from other computers. Online stored index is accessible only to user who is uploading it. Search across computers isn’t comprehensive, but does cover a good range of file types, including:
- Web history (from Internet Explorer, Firefox, Netscape, and Mozilla)
- Microsoft Word documents
- Microsoft Excel spreadsheets
- Microsoft PowerPoint presentations
- PDF files in My Documents
- Text files in My Documents
While Google says users want the convenience of cross-computer file access from anywhere, privacy advocates are understandably concerned.
Dautovic 