Google Desktop for Mac

[cyberone]

spotlight doesnt index everything - hope google does, will use it for sure as i'm using every available google product & idea.

 

[syklee26]

do people actually use spotlight? maybe it's just me but i never have to search for files. you need to organize your works, mon.

 

[iBlue]

do people actually use spotlight? maybe it's just me but i never have to search for files. you need to organize your works, mon.

god yes. It's dead easy and very quick. I can't always remember where I've put things and sometimes I'm just too lazy to bother. I dig spotlight.

 

[gavd]

do people actually use spotlight? maybe it's just me but i never have to search for files. you need to organize your works, mon.

I tend to agree with you on this. I very rarely use Spotlight so I'm not interested in Google Desktop.

 

[Digitalclips]

Nice to see Google make another nod to the Mac community, it feels good to be welcomed by googlezon....

I'm very happy with Spotlight, so no plans to download this.

I agree Google is a great company but this seems, for me at least, unnecessary (kind of like Norton on a Mac). Especially as Leopard is probably going to improve Spotlight further.

I have one major problem with Spotlight (maybe some one will inform me of the solution I have missed thus far) ... but I wish it had a built in option to wait till I had finished typing my query instead of rushing off immediately with the first few letters. I have very large drives and there is quite a delay before it lets me type more and then it starts again (I have Privacy set for all but my two internal drives). I want to be ably to type my query in its entirety and then say ... GO!

I get round this with Text Edit and I type the query then copy and paste into Spotlight.

OK... now tell me I am an idiot and what I have missed ...

 

[zwida]

I agree Google is a great company but this seems, for me at least, unnecessary (kind of like Norton on a Mac). Especially as Leopard is probably going to improve Spotlight further.

I have one major problem with Spotlight (maybe some one will inform me of the solution I have missed thus far) ... but I wish it had a built in option to wait till I had finished typing my query instead of rushing off immediately with the first few letters. I have very large drives and there is quite a delay before it lets me type more and then it starts again (I have Privacy set for all but my two internal drives). I want to be ably to type my query in its entirety and then say ... GO!

I get round this with Text Edit and I type the query then copy and paste into Spotlight.

OK... now tell me I am an idiot and what I have missed ...

That drives me batty. I mutter about this issue pretty much every day. Your workaround is a good one though. I'll have to give that a shot.

 

[zwida]

How do you configure mail to allow you to check your gmail???

I've always wanted to know that...

Instructions are tucked away on the settings page in gmail, but here they are:

1. Enable POP in your Gmail account.
2. Open Apple Mail.
3. Click 'Mail,' and select 'Preferences...'
4. Open the 'Accounts' tab, and click the plus sign (+) along the bottom to add a new account.
5. Enter 'pop.gmail.com' in the 'Incoming Mail Server:' field.
6. Enter your Gmail username (including '@gmail.com') in the 'User Name:' field.
7. Enter your Gmail password in the 'Password:' field.
8. Select 'Add Server...' from the pop-up labeled 'Outgoing Mail Server,' and enter 'smtp.gmail.com' in the 'Outgoing Mail Server:' field.
9. Enter '587' in the 'Server port:' field.
10. Check the box next to 'Use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL).'
11. Select 'Password' next to 'Authentication:' and enter your Gmail username (including '@gmail.com) and Gmail password.
Click 'OK.'
12. Click 'Advanced' and check the box next to 'Use SSL.' (The port changes to '995.')

 

[sishaw]

do people actually use spotlight? maybe it's just me but i never have to search for files. you need to organize your works, mon.

Everyone has different work habits. Some of us have way too much data on our computers to efficiently find it just through file organization. Some of us may want to search for a string across many different files. Some of us may forget exactly where we stashed a document a year or two ago. It just depends. OTOH, some of us may organize their work so that Spotlight/Google are not important.

I see way too many comments on this board where people extrapolate their personal experience and work habits to the community at large. It's solipsism.

 

[trellus]

Yay!

I love Spotlight, but it's dog-slow on my G4 Mac Mini as compared to how INSTANT Google Desktop is on my Dell Laptop, and my Dell Laptop is only about a year newer than my Mac Mini.

I will definitely be trying it out and comparing.

I am a big fan of both Apple and Google, in any case.

I do think, as others have said, that Leopard's new Spotlight functionality has a good chance of overshadowing Google Desktop on the Mac, so I wonder if Google will continue its development on the Mac for long after Leopard is released.

However, if Apple does not significantly improve the speed of Spotlight in Leopard, I can see myself going with Google Desktop.

 

[trellus]

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.

Well, I definitely don't find Spotlight to be "amazingly" fast, but I can see how you'd think that if you're comparing against Adobe Reader searching a single PDF document. I, on the other hand, used Google Desktop on the PC before I got my Mac with Tiger, and I was used to INSTANT (and I do mean INSTANT) results with Google Desktop and so I get a little impatient with Spotlight often. However, I still find it extraordinarily useful and I'm glad the OS has it built-in as I use it pretty frequently.

 

[edguzman]

The integration of Gmail would be nice, but how could it be faster than Spotlight? Spotlight is always instant for me, perhaps a second wait every now and then...

Oh well, back to American Gladiators on ESPN Classic.

On my G4 Its very fast and it does integrate with Gmail. This is WAY BETTER THAN SPOTLIGHT!!

 

[ctango]

No way

Oh well, back to American Gladiators on ESPN Classic.

They have American Gladiators on ESPN Classic! Sweet!

Oh yea, Google Desktop.

Google Desktop seems to be like the Sherlock of old. Combining a search of the internet, your email (gMail and Mail, etc), and your local hard drive. The benefit is viewing previously viewed web pages (don't know if it works yet cause I'm still waiting for the index to finish). Also, the index appears to slow down my Mac far more than Spotlight's index did (iMac G5 2.1 Gz *yes I know it's not the official abbreviation for Gigahertz, but I like it better).

chris

 

[rezatayebi]

not fair

when i was trying to download google desktop for mac something strange happend. "This product is not available in your country". wow! it seems like im not allowed to download it beacuse i live in iran. it is not fair.
keep your stupid google desktop. im happy with spotlight anyway.

 

[3D-Troll]

After Google Desktop was released we got an email not to install it, because of it exposing sensitive information. Don't imagine that this has changed. So it does not go onto my machine. Hardly have to use Spotlight anyway.

Steffen

 

[jwa276]

spotlight sucks because it's so slow

if spotlight were actually fast, I would probably use it.

I have no desire to install google desktop because I've already integrated quicksilver with my workflow, and it is absolutely perfect (just a little difficult to figure out at first).

I like google, and if I didn't already have quicksilver I would give it a try. Spotlight's indexing must not work or something. Why on earth does it take SOOO long just to type a friggin' query??? It is such a dog and so clumpy & annoying.

I love the icon though

 

[alfismoney]

What about storage?

Nobody seems to have asked important questions about Google Desktop, namely what is this going to do to storage space on primary disk? I already sacrifice about 10% of my storage capacity for a feature I never use (Spotlight) so it can index my disks and make my theoretical searches fast. Does Google integrate with Apple's indexed database or does it build an entirely new schema based around their own technology? I would imagine they build a new one, which isn't necessarily a good thing.

Kazeon boxes using Google for indexing do so at a 1:4 ratio and I've heard numbers of up to 20% storage consumption for Google Desktop on PC. Let's say, hypothetically, that Google plays nice and uses up the same 10% of my disk that Spotlight does. On a formatted 120 gig laptop drive, like I just installed, I get about 110 gigs of usable space. Knock off 20% for overhead and then install my 30 gigs worth of apps and libraries and I'm down to about 60 gigs of drive capacity before I even put a single piece of personal data on my computer. Thanks for the search features, folks, but I want my 20 gigs of disk back so I can at least mirror my ipod without buying 250 gig notebook drive. I'll stick to using my normal folders, continue to not save duplicate files, and leave overengineered features to people who actually want them.

 

[Keerock]

Killed my PowerMac G5

I installed it and my machine ground to a halt. Even after disabling indexing in the pref pane, the Google Desktop Daemon was sucking up 97% of my CPU.

Just uninstalled and I'm back to normal... phew!

Addition: Also after uninstall, Google Updater uninstalled itself along with GD.. strange.

 

[BevvyB]

Just installed it on my G5
And it's great
Yes it's quicker than spotlight
And more useful
And it checks all my gmail as I ditched mailapp well over a year ago
So goodbye spotlight
And yes I do have a lot of files
Some people will love this
I'm one of them

 

[clevin]

when i was trying to download google desktop for mac something strange happend. "This product is not available in your country". wow! it seems like im not allowed to download it beacuse i live in iran. it is not fair.
keep your stupid google desktop. im happy with spotlight anyway.

Im sorry, its insane.

Just installed it on my G5
And it's great
Yes it's quicker than spotlight
And more useful
And it checks all my gmail as I ditched mailapp well over a year ago
So goodbye spotlight
And yes I do have a lot of files
Some people will love this
I'm one of them

Im glad, me too, spotlight is slow, QS auto removes what I typed when I m thinking next letter... and never be able to catch my aMule....

 

[HyperZboy]

spotlight doesnt index everything - hope google does, will use it for sure as i'm using every available google product & idea.

I already deleted my copy of this. It seemed to work, but I found the constant indexing to be a total drag on my 1.6GHz G5 (and this was after it had finished the initial indexing). I use too many different files/folders for this thing to keep up with me I guess. Maybe if I had a faster Mac, I'd consider it again but I just didn't like the feeling that I'd just downgraded my G5 to a slower Mac after installing this. I also didn't like the hit on my HD space either. Sorry google.

 

[Howmanoid]

Too little too late

It's nice that G! is sharing the love and all but this looks like a it was written by a but on folks who look at the world through a PCs eyes. I for one don't need any more junk to sit in the back ground and slow down OS X. I'm happy with the tools that are already in the OS to do search and they don't call home and tell big brother what I've got on my drives (do they?)..

Thanks G! but no thanks.

 

[guzhogi]

They have American Gladiators on ESPN Classic! Sweet!

Oh yea, Google Desktop.

Google Desktop seems to be like the Sherlock of old. Combining a search of the internet, your email (gMail and Mail, etc), and your local hard drive. The benefit is viewing previously viewed web pages (don't know if it works yet cause I'm still waiting for the index to finish). Also, the index appears to slow down my Mac far more than Spotlight's index did (iMac G5 2.1 Gz *yes I know it's not the official abbreviation for Gigahertz, but I like it better).

chris

Being able to search the internet at the same time seems like a good idea. I'm fine w/ Spotlight, though. Don't forget you can download Spotlight plugins so you can look for specific types of files (Word documents, Keynote, whatever). While not available for every file type, they be useful. Only thing I wish Spotlight had was Boolean operators, especially if you can nest/group them. Examples:
-(chimpanzees AND gorillas) OR orangutans
-chimpanzees AND (gorillas OR orangutans)

This way, if you forget the exact wordings you used, this'll help. Nested and grouped booleans help should someone need to do so (can't think of any examples now).

 

[pizzacake]

I agree Google is a great company but this seems, for me at least, unnecessary (kind of like Norton on a Mac). Especially as Leopard is probably going to improve Spotlight further.

I have one major problem with Spotlight (maybe some one will inform me of the solution I have missed thus far) ... but I wish it had a built in option to wait till I had finished typing my query instead of rushing off immediately with the first few letters. I have very large drives and there is quite a delay before it lets me type more and then it starts again (I have Privacy set for all but my two internal drives). I want to be ably to type my query in its entirety and then say ... GO!

I get round this with Text Edit and I type the query then copy and paste into Spotlight.

OK... now tell me I am an idiot and what I have missed ...

Try Butler http://www.petermaurer.de/nasi.php?section=butler ctrl-option-apple-space brings up a tiny floating window. Type your query in and it passes the query to spotlight.

Btw, I'm on G4 PPC Mac Mini and I find spotlight to be really fast, only when operating for the first time after logging in is it slow thereafter it flies for me. Maybe because I have 1GB ram. I have loads of pdfs, documents and have tried Google desktop, Copernic, Microsoft and loads of other search tools on the PC. They all took forever to index my documents however the first time Spotlight indexed my hard drives I was gobsmacked, what took ~36hrs to index on 3Ghz PC only took a few hours with a 1.25Ghz G4 Mac & Spotlight!

 

[clevin]

It's nice that G! is sharing the love and all but this looks like a it was written by a but on folks who look at the world through a PCs eyes. I for one don't need any more junk to sit in the back ground and slow down OS X. I'm happy with the tools that are already in the OS to do search and they don't call home and tell big brother what I've got on my drives (do they?)..

Thanks G! but no thanks.

slow down OSX? may i ask, did u try it?

 

[Sunrunner]

All this program ever was was a Spotlight clone for windows with a few bits of Google service interface fun. For Mac (especially with 10.5 on the horizon), its about the equivilent of adding a second stereo into your car... not very useful.