Google does Desktop Search!

Google has released (in beta) its new desktop search tool. I have tried it and can say that it is really fast and makes it easy to find things on your computer! Download it and try it for free! You can customize it (up to a point) to add file types and control the folders that are searched (or not). This can be important if you are sharing a computer with someone and have things on your machine that you don't want popping up at inopportune moments!

There are a several other desktop search applications around and I have tried a couple of them. A problem that I had with the Google tool is due to how I operate on my configuration. I work from my laptop, but store all my files on my desktop system, which I link to over a wireless network. This makes it easier for me to set up automated backup of all my files over the Internet. Works fine unless I need files on my laptop when I am away from home! In that case, I have to have made other arrangements.

In any event, the files that I want to search from my desktop (laptop) are on another computer that I have mapped my laptop to, but Google does not allow me to set up search indexes of those files. This is an enhancement that they will probably add in the future, but that is of no help to me now.

GuruNet is a great application that I have used for years as a dictionary and general reference tool. They now offer desktop search, too (also beta!). Unfortunately, like Google, I can't get to my other system. Except for that, it, too, is a great tool: fast, easy, convenient, etc.

The third application I have tried finally gave me the capability I want. Copernic is a general purpose search tool that I have had for years, since before Google became dominant in the field. It searches multiple sources like a metacrawler, and has a great interface for serious searchers with all kinds of added features useful to researchers. They now offer desktop search. I now have it installed on my system (laptop, my primary working system) and consider it a great improvement.

These tools all work pretty much the same way. They index all the files in the folders you have specified for searching and refer to that index when you are looking for something. Pretty standard approach. They offer the ability to specify how often the indexes are updated, and allow you to initiate them manually. Copernic refreshes the indexes whenever your computer is idle! The indexes can get pretty large, but with the price of hard drives nowadays, this should not be a problem unless you are under-configured! Google is integrated with your browser, while the others are not. What this means is that any search you do using Google will also bring up a couple of items from your desktop for you to consider.

We have been hearing for some time now that Microsoft will be integrating desktop search into its new operating system whenever it is released, but who knows when that will be. Now you know of several alternatives that will give you the capability right now, for free!

Improving High Speed Internet Access!

"Verizon Communications Inc., the nation's largest telephone company, announced yesterday it is digging up streets and stringing wire in six states, including Washington's Maryland and Virginia suburbs, to build a new fiber-optic network that will deliver high-speed Internet service and cable-style television to homes and businesses. "

This is just another example of how access to the Internet is improving around the country. Higher speed access for more people means more business for sites that have created an effective presence on the web!

This is the kind of news that we like to see.

Making Your Website E-mail address Spam-Proof

"If you are launching a brand new website and proudly put your email address info@yourdomain.com , then very soon you will start getting spam email to this virgin address, due to the relentless searching of the spam bots. It’s a dilemma; you want your web visitors to be able to contact you but you don’t need hundreds of
spam emails adding to your burden of unsolicited mail."

In a newsletter I receive, I got the quote from above. It came from a search engine optimization site that sells its services, but also gave a good tip for encoding your e-mail address to put on your site to deter spammers. On a site they referred me to, you can enter the email address you want to encode and receive a script that spammers cannot read that can be posted on your web site.

The newsletter (which I cannot link you to) gave some other information about different approaches to trying to combat spam, but also pointed out that the spambots read the html on the page, so the common approach of setting up your email link from an image will not suffice.

Google Growing - An Update on Google

"There is a lot going on at the Googleplex these days."

We are all concerned about anything happening at Google, and this article describes some of what is happening at Google right now. The message is that Google is probably changing its algorithms again, and is making changes to how it deals with links (in addition to other goings-on described in the article). Since Google is such a dominant force in the search engine field that we are all working in, we have to stay current. Take a look at this article.

Perhaps the most important message contained in the article is the thought that we have to create our sites bearing in mind that we may lose our Google traffic at any moment, and may have trouble getting it back! While our training sessions in the Internet Marketing Clinic focus most on how to get your site ranked, don't forget the other techniques that we discuss to create a community around your site. Newsletters that build a base of subscribers interested in your content can make a big difference to your business when Google makes a change. Relationships with other sites that interest your clients, and links from those sites, can also play a major role in keeping your site active (in addition to helping to get you reinstated if you get dropped from Google).