Why I won't install Google Desktop (yet)

Last Friday Patrick showed me the Google Desktop search software (check his blog for his thought’s, David has a nice vision too). Of course they need to fix the privacy issue, and I’m pretty sure they will. The usability of this application is pretty huge, but I’m still hesitating to use it. First of all, it’s running in a web browser. Why would the Google Desktop application or any other desktop application run inside a web browser? I want the rich user experience of a smart client! I want integration with the OS, with other applications; maybe I even want to use it from within a task pane (that would be cool!). My second concern is the privacy issue. Just imagine that the Google Desktop web server contains a security hole… all your sensitive information could be exposed on the internet. Scary isn’t it?

And last but not least, it’s not extensible. It would be great if you could create your own extension to the Google Desktop so other types of documents could be indexed (like the IFilter stuff). Further more, creating your own schemas to allow more targeted searches would be a killer feature too. Thoughtful readers may have noticed that I’m requesting features that are promised to be in WinFS. I know, WinFS is not yet here and the Google Desktop is. Maybe I will install the Google Desktop, maybe I won’t however at this point I’m not yet convinced. Don’t get me wrong, kudos to the Google Desktop team; you’ve got a potential killer application and I’m pretty sure some guys over Redmond are watching you very closely.

Btw, today I got a request for a GMail Invite from a Belgian colleague; I was a little bit surprised because I thought everyone would have at least one already! So if you need one, drop me a line and I’ll send you one right away.