10 Comments

Access your hardrive contents from any computer via Google

February 9, 2006 by in Privacy,Tech with 10 Comments

I don’t think much explaination is needed regarding Google Desktop. The search giant has recently released version 3.0 of the desktop search software with a very interesting feature. What was once touted as a “secure” (as in your search your files from your own private computer) productivity search software for your desktop – indexing your files locally – has been transformed into a “remote desktop” of sorts.

Search Across Computers enables you to search your documents and viewed web pages across all your computers. For example, you could find files you edited on your desktop from your laptop. To activate this feature, you will need a Google Account (the same login you use for Gmail, Orkut, or other Google services). Remember, to search your other computers you must also install Google Desktop on them as well as enable the Search Across Computers preference using the same Google Account on each one.

Google desktop now provides users with access to their hardrive contents remotely. How is this achieved? Simple. By utilizing the feature, you must accept the fact that your personal files will be stored on Google servers. That’s right. Your personal files will be stored somewhere on the Googleplex server farm. YES!

Get It


  • Alex Tan

    Apple needs to do this with Mac OS X.

  • roberto Felgueiras

    No offense, but no one is indexing my files on a server.

    No one.

    There is a way to do this for OS X using Spotlight and a third party plugin (http://www.searchlightrss.com/) but it’s a direct connect, nothing stored on a server.

  • Tim

    Im suspicious and skeptical.

    1) What if your gmail/google account is stolen/hacked/etc.. someone can access your files. Somehow I can imagine problems coming from this, either someone accidentally releasing confidential info or being targeted, or someone gaining tons of personnal info from a simple google account. (email, address book, documents, google talk contacts) it adds up.

    2) Id like to see how much space they will need if people use this like google maps or search. lol

  • Paul

    I’d rather not have everybody accessing my files and using up my bandwidth.

  • http://caramelzappa.com Caramelzappa

    Dispite the privacy and security issues, this could make for a nifty free backup system. Since it stores all your files on googles servers, if you disconnect the computer you shared, the files shoudl still be stored on googles server. They would be backed up and available for retrieval whenever you wanted them.

  • Rick

    Tim:

    If someone hacks your computer (windows) account, they can remotely access it and do alot worse. So if you can keep your computer account safe, chances are you can keep your gmail account safe.

    As per the safety of your files on a google server, remember google was the ONLY search engine that did not give out info to the government. I trust google fully, because their reputation speaks for itself.

  • Rick

    Caramelzappa: It only saves *MS Office files, not everything. So it is not a backup solution, unless you only use *MS Office files.

    *By MS Office files I mean any of the following:
    (taken from google)
    * Email within Outlook or Outlook Express (notes, contacts, journal and to do list items are not included, nor are emails in the Deleted Items folder)
    * Microsoft Word, Excel & PowerPoint files
    * AOL Instant Messenger chats
    * Web pages viewed online in Internet Explorer or any HTML file saved to your computer
    * Plain text files

  • http://5thirtyone.com Derek

    the only real positive feature that i would make use of is browsing history. other than that, i prefer keeping my documents private. i am sure that these cries for added privacy will motivate google to implement some sort of encryption service which will let desktop users rest at ease knowing that their files are encrypted for their eyes only.

    google also needs to consider a fail-safe login option in case your google account is compromised.

  • http://joeanderson.co.uk/blog/ Joe Anderson

    What’s a hardrive? A hard-drive perhaps?

  • Bada Dhur

    apple leopard OS already does this and more…. On network computers running any OS. And it is not limited to only microsoft files only. Nor does it require to install any software on the networked computers!!!

    Get A Life… Get A Mac

    Cheers!!!

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