The idea behind the free tool is simple: to make it possible for users to find information on their computers as fast and easily as they can search the web with Google. It represents "a quantum leap in access to your own information," said Larry Page, Google's co-founder and president of products.
When a user chooses to search simultaneously across his or her computer and Google.com, the computer's content is not made accessible to Google, or to anyone else, without the user's express permission. Users can select what information they want to have searched, and easily remove information whenever they want.
The company suffered a privacy backlash when it announced Gmail, its free e-mail service. Privacy International and others complained about the proposed scanning of personal e-mail to deliver targeted adverts. In Google's home state of California, Senator Liz Figueroa went even further, drafting a law that threatened to ban the proposals. At the time, Google acknowledged that it could have done a better job with the first draft of its privacy policy.
With Google Desktop Search, an accompanying Privacy FAQ explains that it does not share the contents of your computer with anyone "without your explicit permission." It also explains how to prevent specific web pages, files and directories from ever being indexed or copied into Google Desktop Search. And, at least for now, it's advert-free.
This has not been enough to appease everyone. In an interview with news site The Register, David Burns, CEO of rival search provider Copernic points out that Google's plan to combine the information on your computer with the results of its web searches will ultimately result in more and more targeted adverts.
Others have warned that many users will not change their default settings and therefore remain unaware that they are building a cache of bank account details, e-mails and Instant Messaging chats that they may assume are not being recorded.