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Google Desktop for Mac

Meh. More companies writing OS X software is a good thing, but I don't see the point of the search thing really. Spotlight is already pretty much instant on my machine, so Google's search can't be faster, plus it would use more resources. Spotlight launches programs just fine without any extra clicking.

--Eric
 
Spotlight is very inconsistent speedwise - sometimes lightning fast, sometimes slug slow (this on a C2D Macbook Pro). If it weren't for Quicksilver, I'd have installed Google Desktop sometime earlier today. :) But as it is, I'll have to give it a try sometime... but it's hard to see how it could beat Quicksilver.
 
bmoorhouse said:
Actually, it is Command-Click that opens a Finder window.

The original poster was correct - Command-Enter will launch programs, or open files for that matter.

So, Quicksilver does not subtract a step - they are the same.
Click to expand...

I'm wondering if there's a preference setting somewhere. Cmd-Enter opens a window and highlights the chosen item for me. Simply hitting return launches apps for me. I use Spotlight all the time as a program launcher for my less frequently used programs. It's just easier than navigating to them.

I don't know what all the fuss is about, though, with Google Desktop. If its only selling point is that it runs a little faster than Spotlight (and that it searches Gmail, for those who don't use Mail to retrieve their Gmail), I just don't see it as that tremendous a boon. Of course, I'm sure there are some out there that will happily grab this up and extol it virtues.

[Edit] I just figured out the Cmd-Enter thing. If you type the name of what you want (or part of it), then press Cmd-Enter, it selects and launches the 'Top Hit', whereas simply hitting enter will open the Spotlight window. Now, if you use the down arrow to highlight the 'Top Hit', then hit enter, it does the same thing as above, whereas Cmd-Enter will open a window of the directory containing the item. For what it's worth... [/Edit]
 
Congrats to Google for releasing this. It's far far better than Spotlight. It searches for phrases and gives you an inline preview of the file, ala Google internet search. Spotlight's inability to search for phrases makes it next to useless. It always delivers hundreds or thousands of items with no way to select among them meaningfully. I've always thought Spotlight was a failure and now we have an alternative. Take note, Apple.
 
Great News

As someone who uses Gmail, Google docs and calendar as well as reader, this will be a boon. Instant update and is faster than spotlight. Also if you use Google to search on a normal page, it comes up with items on your hard drive, brilliant.

Go Google, with other software coming out for macs from Google this makes for a great way to be productive. I do not need to keep a database anymore just save the article etc to google, especially as Gmail is now unlimited and carries a 10mb email size. This is everything .mac should of been.

Only thing missing that Spotlight has is 'Highlight' item when opening.

Why do I use Google for all the above, because I can use it from where ever I am on any computer, windows, linux or a MAC, as I can not afford a macbook and use a linux laptop I can still use Google products, the Google sync product is excellent. Oh and I can get it on my mobile as well.

Dale
More than happy.
 
rafrif said:
Google Desktop for Windows modifies the TCP/IP stack! I wonder what they do in OSX?
Click to expand...

Can you link to an article to back up your claims? I did a search and couldn't find any evidence of Google's program modifying such low-level OS foundations.

EDIT: nevermind.
 
Spotlight

Spotlight does everything I want - and amazingly fast. It can search anything on my hard drives in a fraction of the time that Adobe Reader can search a single pdf document. I find Spotlight simple amazing and a vital part of my computing experience. I'll read more about Google Desktop, but I find it hard to believe it can be better than spotlight.
 
i like that google paid some attention to Mac user's. but this app is useless. why make something for tiger which is already there. on my Beige G3 in my sig spotlight is almost instant. if i want to find something i use spotlight or the built in google search in safari if its not on my HDD. this is like adding a steering wheel to a car that has one already. they could have came up with something useful.

now i could understand if they made this for jag or panther, but tiger only come on google what was you thinking, this is useless for a Os with these funtions already. this will be my first negative feedback for anything on here.
 
dornoforpyros said:
Although I applaud google's commitment to the mac community (sure it takes a few months, but they always get it out eventually), I've gotta say I'm not comfortable unlocking the door to my hard drive for em.

Nothings free in this world, and the adsense info is soon to follow.
Click to expand...
Exactly my concern. I like Google a lot for web searches, but I don't want them anywhere near my personal data that I haven't chosen to publish. Abundant cheap storage leads to databases that never, ever, die.

I give them a lot of credit for trying to be on the right side of privacy so far, but I just think there's an inherent conflict of interest in a company that specializes in massive amounts of automatic data aggregation trying to respect privacy. It can't be done. At some point they're going to cross the line (or at least cross the line that I draw) because they'll sacrifice privacy to either the insatiable beast of convenience or the insatiable beast of corporate growth.

They're far from being evil as a company, but all those good intentions give them a lot of paving material.
 
bilbo--baggins said:
Spotlight does everything I want - and amazingly fast. It can search anything on my hard drives in a fraction of the time that Adobe Reader can search a single pdf document. I find Spotlight simple amazing and a vital part of my computing experience. I'll read more about Google Desktop, but I find it hard to believe it can be better than spotlight.
Click to expand...

Believe it.
 
Analog Kid said:
They're far from being evil as a company, but all those good intentions give them a lot of paving material.
Click to expand...

This is my biggest concern, and is what fuels my love-hate relationship with them. Their stuff works great and all, but i don't like the idea of every action i take being scanned and filed.

And now my Hard Drive too? :(

The counter-argument is that everything we do these days is probrably monitored anyway.

MA.
 
hmmm

okay good to hear that google develops mac software but who needs this?
i mean who cares if its faster? spotlight is fast enough for me...

we are apple users, we don`t want to load our mac with ******** and small apps like there are thousands for pc...

so google desktop for mac tiger! - in my opinion - is very stupid and the most useless thing i`ve heard in the last few months...

best regards,
tommy

i`d like to see google earth for mac... maybe there is one i dunno... ´`ll tak look :)
 
I'm somewhat disappointed as it can't index me external HDD (which is a mybook). As most of my stuff is on there this kind of renders google desktop usless to me
 
Caused my system to shut down repeatedly

This software is not ready for prime time. I installed it yesterday and it began indexing my hard drive. Three times it caused my Mac to abruptly shut down. It gave me no warning—just a big ugly crash. I finally had to uninstall it.

I was doing this on a MacBook Pro with 10.4.9 installed.
 
trying it out

It's pretty slick & quick. The main reason it interests me, personally, is that it includes my Gmail and Google search history.

I don't see this as a Spotlight vs. Google shootout--clearly, this is a tool some will find useful and others won't, but it's nice that it's now available for Mac OS.
 
PYR0M310N said:
I'm somewhat disappointed as it can't index me external HDD (which is a mybook). As most of my stuff is on there this kind of renders google desktop usless to me
Click to expand...

According to Google Desktop help:

When you install Google Desktop, it automatically starts indexing the contents of your internal hard drive. If you want Google Desktop to index any other hard drives, such as external drives or flash drives, please follow these steps:

1. Go to the Apple menu > "System Preferences" > "Google Desktop" > "Indexing."
2. In the list of disk volumes, select the checkbox to "enable indexing for any additional volumes."

Please Note: Google Desktop only indexes volumes that use the Mac OS X standard file system (HFS+).
 
I've downloaded and started using the Desktop just to search gmail.

Someone might be able to tell me how to fix this, but gmail and Mail seem incompatable. All my sent mail ends up in my inbox regardless of my rules (I suppose they are wrong). So, anything that can search my gmail account makes me happier.
 
Yeah, I'd love to install an app that, to quote John Gruber, "installs an input manager hack in the local domain Library folder" and "injects code into every Cocoa application you launch" and doesn't explicitly ask me to allow that at install. Thanks google, but keep your hands off my software, OK?
 
I would definitely want to know more about this software before trying it.

Google makes their money off of advertising.

I'm certainly not cool with having my usage patterns monitored and sold to other companies.

The downfall of MS Windows was that they deliberately allowed spyware
so that they could market user tracking to other companies.

Google needs to be very clear about protection of personal user content

and frankly, I'm fine with Spotlight.
 
This is pretty cool

As a test, I had Google Desktop search for my last message in this forum...popped right up! Now that can save some time compared to going through the front door.
 
Do Not Use Google Desktop!

did you ever read the google desktop eula? it is insane! among many other worrisome things they reserrve the right to store information of whats on your computer on their system and the right to data mine that. why not sell your soul to the devil while you're at it?
 
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