Welcome to my first blog posting!

I installed Google desktop a few days ago and have had a pretty lackluster experience with it so far. After it finished indexing my system (which has over 250,000 files), I decided to try sample searches. I was encouraged when I entered terms that I knew to be in e-mails and power point documents and results pages appeared virtually instantly.

However, my initial optimism turned to distrust of the output when when I entered a term that I knew was in several presentations, but the search came up empty. A little experimenting with a particular power point revealed that the search could find any term or phrase in the first 10 pages of the 50-page document, but nothing located deeper. I then tried a few e-mail searches, looking for phrases that were in older e-mails. Again, the searches turned up nothing.

I haven't spent much time looking into the problem so I don't know if Google Desktop has a size limit, perhaps based on disk free space, on its index files, if there's an age limit on documents it indexes, or if it will only go 10 pages into Office documents, but a quick read through the help file didn't turn up anything. In any case, I'm waiting a few weeks to investigate and to see if they release an update before I give up and uninstall. In the meantime I'm certainly not relying on it for searches.

Another thing I noticed when I opened Process Explorer to see what processes Google Desktop creates is that none of the Google Desktop executable images have version information (like company name or description), let alone digital signatures authenticating them as coming from Google. In light of Google's recent run in with malware I would expect them to be more security conscious. I've reported both these issues to Google and they've responded with a note saying they'll look into them.

Originally by Mark Russinovich on 3/12/2005 9:11:00 AM
Migrated from original Sysinternals.com/Blog
# re: Google Desktop

Welcome to the Blogosphere!
I think this will be a very interesting blog......

< click >Subscribed!

3/15/2005 3:33:00 AM by Anonymous
# re: Google Desktop

Is there a good resource describing practical code signing on Windows? I tried a few searches, I wasn't able to find any resource I really liked.

I suspect that pure ignorance is why more companies (or the Google Desktop Search group) don't sign their delieverables.

3/18/2005 7:06:00 PM by Anonymous
# re: Google Desktop

I'm pretty sure that the Google desktop does only "partial indexing" of files. Mark Russinovich has a good rundown at http://www.sysinternals.com/blog/
2005/03/google-desktop.html

3/22/2005 9:42:00 PM by Anonymous
# re: Google Desktop

First off -- great tools and great blog...

I just wanted to stop and point out the eery nature of that last post, in which you were not only directed to yourself for more information but were directed to the exact same words as the poster was attempting to offer clarification to...My mind has officially been blown.

6/24/2005 1:15:00 PM by Anonymous
# re: Google Desktop

just a small doubt ..... agreed that this is a great blog ..... but how relevant is it today, now that Google has moved out of the beta phase? It would be great if i could get any new updates on the GDS and also some info on the plugins that one is allowed to write for personal use ... could i get some help on that? can i look back here say by tomorrow and get an answer for this post ?????????(just a little tooo hopeful i guess :) )

7/26/2005 4:12:00 AM by scam
# re: Google Desktop

Not to change the subject, but has anyone read the rootkit info from Black Hat, or see the article at http://www.informit.com/newsletters/whatsnew.asp?ni=101&st=45774

I have 4 session luid's, 2 of which are (I'm pretty sure) OK. However, I have a couple that are worrysome, having SIDs but either N/A as the type, or ANONYMOUS LOGON" as the user name.

Anyway, is there a sysinternal or other tool that we could use to detect these rootkits?

Thanks

7/28/2005 12:35:00 PM by JimB
# re: Google Desktop

You may want to look at this article before you go too far with Google Desktop. Not something I would want running on my pc's.

http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,118201,00.asp

This is basically a spying program," says Richard Smith, an independent privacy and security consultant. "Like a gun, it is extremely useful and potentially very dangerous."

2/22/2006 7:08:00 AM by Anonymous
# re: Google Desktop

I agree with you the way you view the issue. I remember Jack London once said everything positive has a negative side; everything negative has positive side. It is also interesting to see different viewpoints & learn useful things in the discussion.

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