by Steven Chevalia

Created on: July 10, 2009

The Google Desk Reference Tools are great tools which are not heard about as much as they should be. There are three major tools within the Google Desktop Tools. The first is the Computer Search Tool, the second contains many small tools, called Google Gadgets, and the third is comprised of a few miscellaneous tools that are both helpful and helpful if you are trying to protect your computer.

What is the Google Desktop Tools thing all about? Google is an ever expanding company and they realized that using their searching technology they could apply it to computers in general. Now, you have the ability to use Google search on your computer with the same lightning fast results as on the internet. Soon, Google will be releasing their Linux operating system and will take their Google Desktop Tools concept even further.

The first major tool, the computer searcher, is a tool which goes through your computer and indexes every file. When you go online to Google.com you will see a new search option labeled Desktop. Once you select that you can enter in a query and Google will go through all of the files it indexed on your computer and display the results just like it does web pages. Google also allows you to preview the items so you don't have to open a program if you're unsure of if it's the file you're looking for or not.

Google indexes all of your files just once, "only when your computer is idle for more than 30 seconds, so it shouldn't slow down your machine's performance, but depending on the number of items, this process can take a total of several hours" (google.com/features). As Google indexes your items it also takes "snapshots" of every item you open, after installing Google Desktop, so if you accidentally delete a file you can recover it.

If you don't have an internet connection where you're working you can use the Google Computer Search from your Desktop by pressing your Control key twice. This will bring up the "Quick Search" bar, as you type it will update with a list of items Google thinks you might be looking for. If you see the one you want you can stop typing and use the arrow keys to navigate to it, click enter, and open the program. Once you are done with the "Quick Search" you can press the Control key twice again and it will disappear.

The Google Computer Search feature doesn't just sort through Microsoft Word documents, pictures, or other business type files. When the index takes place Google will save e-mails, web history, and seventeen

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