Desktop Search Engines: Boon or Bane?

The file search utilities that come with a computer's OS are relatively slow and primitive. Compare them to the ease and speed of web search engines such as Google or Amazon.com and the light of opportunity is lit. There has to be a better way and desktop search engines are filling that need. Dell machines come with Google desktop pre-installed, so it's important to know what a DSE is and what it's doing.

What do they do? Essentially they work by pre-scanning files on your computer: e-mail messages, Web pages in your browser's cache, spreadsheets, etc.; and compiling a list of the words and phrases it finds. Once this process is completed, and it can sideline your machine for up to a couple of hours if you have a big data store, the index is optimized to make searching quicker. Two detailed articles discuss a selection of DSE's and links to some of the major ones.

There are a number of issues to consider: does the size, number and complexity of your files justify installing and maintaining the tool in the first place. Perhaps the most important issue is protecting the privacy of t.

he data on your machine, especially in light of SB1386. Some DSEs examine email, possibly opening your department's email infrastructure to examination. Google, MSN both establish a relationship with their home sites. There are concerns about potential hacking and about the government demanding information on searches. Copernic, a product growing in popularity, is stand alone and provides more customization than some of the others.

Having these tools on a departmental desktop may place data at risk. As a result, the Applied Security Task Force is currently drafting a policy about the use of DSEs.