Apple Store“Mac users have been blessed with an easy-to-use tool for searching deep inside documents, not just their file names. So it struck me as odd that Google Inc. would be offering similar software,” Anick Jesdanun reports for The Associated Press. “But after playing with Google Desktop for Mac, I’m partly sold.”

Jesdanun reports, “Desktop shares many characteristics with the Spotlight search tool that Apple Inc. ships for free with new Mac computers. In fact, Desktop works by borrowing many of Spotlight’s core components and settings, so tweaks you make to Spotlight will automatically update Desktop.”

“But Desktop, a free download from Google’s Web site, goes further in letting you search Web pages you’ve visited and e-mail you’ve sent and received using Google’s Gmail service (you’re limited to one account, though). It also keeps previous versions of documents and those you’ve deleted — good or bad, depending on your vantage point,” Jesdanun reports.

“Like the Windows version, Desktop for Mac will keep track of most Web sites you visit, as long as you use the Safari, Firefox or Camino browser. So a search for “best of times” might pull up previously viewed Web sites on Charles Dickens besides the files already stored on your computer,” Jesdanun reports.

Jesdanun reports, “I find Spotlight very responsive and easy to use, but for pack rats like me never willing to delete anything, having yet another way to find my files can’t hurt.”