Desk-top this, baby!!

Mike Arrington over at TechCrunch reports that the Big G has released the next version of its Desktop Search utility: Google Desktop Search 3. And he’s being very cautious about it..

I am not happy.

Mike’s stand on this?

This is of course a touchy privacy subject, but the ability to search from a remote computer will be very welcome by some users.

The point of contention is the new “Search Across Computers” feature which horrifed me. Until now, the Desktop Search explicitly declared that all your results would be stored locally, and locally only.

I haven’t been much of a fan of the Desktop Search anyway, but this release is just too mind-whacking not to report about. Compare this, the older versions of the Google Desktop Search(Link probably expires soon) :

These combined results can be seen only from your own computer; your computer’s content is never sent to Google (or anyone else).

with this, the new answers by Google:

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.

My “other” computers? Heck, If I had two computers in different places I would be using some CMS or a Collaboration tool or some other Sync software. Why should I Search Across Computers?

A touchy privacy subject, eh? Well Mike, you are damned right on that one!

Oh but wait, I had given up my privacy the day I accepted the Gmail, Orkut, etc. and all those ever-forever-‘beta‘s… Have you read their privacy policies? Actually, all of the Google ‘Programs’ have only one standard privacy policy.

So, I shouldn’t be complaining at all…

Moreover, ain’t I forgetting something??

“We’re not Evil!!”

Oh yeah! Right!! Hmm… Let’s see:

Here is a short version of the Google ‘We’re-not-evil’ Policy over the years:
(with subsequent ramifications-due-to-ambitions)

1. We’re not evil.
2. We’re not evil, we just want to access all the data in the world so that we can give you better results.
3. We’re not evil. After all, we’re offering you 2000MB to store your mails. But you’ll have to let us read them? Why? Ads, of course!! Somebody’s gotta pay for that right??
4. We’re not evil, we just want to access your data so that we can give you better searches on your desktop.
5. We are not evil. We are just keeping an eye on you if you are doing anything illegal so that we can sell it to the world and thus, earn our ‘pious’ money .
6. We’re not evil, but we don’t want to show you the truth. So what if the world calls them slants? WE slant towards ‘other’ things – World Domination, for example…
7. We’re not evil, but we will refuse you entry into our living room if you do evil things. Yes, Optimising your site for our Search Algorithm is an evil thing. Why? Because only we are allowed to do that!!!

Excuse me, I have to go throw up.