A Review of Google Desktop for Linux

In previous reviews, I have written about such meta search programs as Beagle (for Linux), which searches inside files to allow you to search your documents even more precisely than before. No longer are you forced to only search file names; now you can search a file based on its contents.

Mac users (at least those using Tiger) have long had Spotlight, and Windows users (and recently Mac users), have been able to use Google's offering, called simply Google Desktop. Linux users, however, had to use one of a couple different open-source projects - Beagle or Tracker. Beagle has been around longer, but lately seems to have run into some issues where its CPU usage would suddenly spike, and it would effectively take over the machine, rendering it almost unusable. Tracker is a newer project, but in my eyes shows more promise. I've gotten the same great results, but it never seems to take over my system.

Still, neither program was as wonderful (or convenient) as Spotlight or Google Desktop, which is why I was so excited a couple days ago to see that Google had released their meta search product for Linux! While it isn't open source (meaning that you or I can't get inside the actual code of the program to see how it works, or make any modifications to it), which will undoubtedly offend many open source purists, I'm more of a pragmatist, and so this announcement made me incredibly happy.

Downloading Google Desktop was a snap. Simply go to the project's home page and click the big blue download button. From this page, you can download either a .deb or .rpm installation package, depending on whether you use a Red Hat/Fedora/Suse/Mandriva system or a Debian/Ubuntu/Freespire system. Or you can choose to use Google's Linux Repository, which allows you to install Linux products to your computer via your computer's standard package management software. Instructions for installation via this method can be found on this page.

Once installed, Google Desktop will sit quietly in your menu system until you either start the program or restart the computer. Once either of those trigger events happens, Google Desktop will start the long process (it took roughly 5.5 hours to scan through my 80 GB hard drive), of indexing your computer's content. Via Google Desktop's preferences, you can choose which type of documents Google Desktop will index. By default, all supported file types are indexed, with the option to also index the user's Gmail account. This is a handy feature, as it makes searching through your emails a breeze, and doesn't involve logging into your Gmail account via a browser!

Currently, Google Desktop for Linux supports the following file types: plain text files, PDF files, OpenOffice word processing, spreadsheet and presentation documents, Gmail, Thunderbird, Firefox and web history, images, music files, web pages, info documents and more.

To use Google Desktop, simply click the colorful panel icon that appears after first starting Google Desktop, or quickly hit the Control key twice. Up pops a silver window into which you can start typing your search query. Google Desktop is fast, and even as your typing, begins to search. Depending on your preference, you will be shown a handful of results, with the rest available to be viewed in a web browser.

Doing a search for the word "party," I found that my computer has 34 emails containing the word, 230 other files, 32 multimedia files and I have recently visited 16 web pages that include the word. The results are displayed on a page that looks identical to a typical Google search, and clicking on a link via the web browser opens up your local file. Also, since Google Desktop has now integrated itself with your browser, doing a standard search online (via Google, of course), will also show an option to view all the results for the same search performed on your local files. Pretty slick.

Overall, I found Google Desktop to be a wonderful program for Linux users. After the initial indexing process (which I started before going to bed), Google Desktop has not used any noticeable portion of my computer's processor. It sits there, waiting for me to use it, and nothing more. As files are downloaded, deleted or altered, of course, Google Desktop makes note of the changes, but this is not a resource intensive process.

For those who want the ability to search "inside" your documents, and are tired of the system use required by Beagle or the relative lack of any configurability (at least options not requiring a terminal) for Tracker, give Google Desktop for Linux a try.