“A number of Mac-oriented websites have been getting excited over reports that Google may be planning a Macintosh version of its new desktop search system,” David Frith reports for Australian IT. “Google is the most popular search engine for finding information on the web, and last month it launched Google Desktop for Windows, designed to find information closer to home: buried somewhere on a personal computer.”
Frith reports, “It appears to be a modest hit, despite warnings by privacy advocates that it could expose the contents of email messages, instant messenger chats and other personal threads to unauthorised eyes on multi-user PCs. At a Los Angeles conference celebrating the 35th anniversary of the internet, Google chief executive Eric Schmidt was asked if the company would produce a Mac version. ‘We intend to do it,’ he said, according to a Reuters report, adding that the software would have to be completely redesigned because of differences between the Mac and Windows operating systems.”
“Schmidt gave no timetable, and later reports say he was speaking generally and did not indicate that Google was actually working on a Mac version,” Frith reports. “Here’s The Barrow’s advice to the Google boss: don’t bother, Eric. Your product is not needed on the Macintosh platform. Mac OS X already has a pretty good Find system that hunts out wanted content within files on a hard disk. Much better stuff is on the way.”
Frith reports, “The next version of the OS X operating system – dubbed Tiger – will contain an integrated desktop search system that promises to far outdo anything Google might come up with. Apple calls it Spotlight, describing it as ‘a radically new and lightning fast way to find anything saved on your personal computer,’ including email messages, contacts, images and calendar entries. According to Apple, it zips through more than 100,000 files and displays the results as fast as you can type in search terms. Thanks to its indexing of metadata – descriptive information built into all files – it searches in many cunning and different ways. For instance, to find information sent by a friend or colleague, just type their name, and instantly you’ll get references to every document they authored or edited, every image emailed, and all messages the two of you have exchanged.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we have already commented back on October 29th, “Can you say redundant and late? By the time Google gets a Mac OS X version ready, Mac users will already have Mac OS X ‘Tiger’ with one of its premiere features: ‘Spotlight’ search technology. We think Apple will do a far better job with a Mac search tool than Google. Apple did create the OS after all. Find out more about ‘Spotlight,’ due with ‘Tiger’ in the first half of 2005 here.”
Related MacDailyNews article:
Google plans Mac OS X version of its desktop search tool – October 29, 2004
we should be priaising them for offering similar software to mac users that windows users will be familiar with
every little bit helps
If Google didn’t offer a version someone like Thurrott would pick up on that fact and use it to slam the Mac. Let them introduce it.
erk–well, duh!
This is the same comment that get thrown out whenever Apple does something better than a 3rd party..as opposed to MS who usually do things worse than the 3rd party, but own the standard because of … urm.. *snaps fingers.. no it’s not their marketing.. OH YEAH.. WINDOWS DEPLOYMENT
Yeah.. let’s all praise Google (who Apple loves enough to include in Safari) and not download their stuff..
You fine with that erk?
“We think Apple will do a far better job with a Mac search tool than Google. Apple did create the OS after all”
Isnt it funny how Apple can do a better job cause they created the OS… but Microsoft (who also created their own OS) has to rely on a third party company to produce something better.
Thats the difference between Mac and Windows really. In most cases Windows users are reliant on 3rd party developers to improve the OS, where as Apple just gives you something decent outta the box.
If the Google thing will run under 10.2.x or 10.3.x they may have a market in the late adoptors, or those running legacy machines. I’m thinking beige G3s and Wallstreet Powerbooks.
I’d be grateful for a good search engine for my good old Wallstreet G4. With the newer machines, of course, it’ll be Spotlight, but still, a second search machine may come in handy.
And I agree with erk, how would we cry foul if Schmidt had said “Nah, I don’t think we want to develop for the Mac”.
We should encourage development for the Mac platform, but, by the same token, their Windows search development is spurred by the defiencies of the Windows platform. They really need something better over there. The current Mac search is not perfect, but it is pretty good. Spotlight sounds like it will be even better.
And guess what, in 5 years they probably will come up with something even better.
Life is good in the Mac world.
Where’s my freaking gmail already
Yes, Tiger is slated to have Spotlight and it promises to be a winner. But there’s a big difference between Spotlight and whatever Google may come up with.
The price.
*shakes head* Its like talking to someone with ADD. You guys just don�t get it. Google search tool unifies the search world under google. It�s the first step in removing the notion of searching out there and in here (here being your hard drive or local LAN/WAN systems.) This is BETA software guys. BETA. Expect some serious changes to how it works over the next few years. So lets say I want to search on iPod. Not only does it find web results on the net it comes back with the iPod manual that is on my local hard drive, maybe chats about iPods, etc and unifies them into one search window. Its taking google searches to the next level and as good as Spotlight is its nothing more then a local metadata/content search tool. Its not extending itself beyond the local hard drive. Google and eventually MS, Yahoo and a handful of others are taking searching to the next level. (Some already have: http://www.copernic.com/ ) Google�s search tool is simply a shot across MS�s bow. A tap on the shoulder telling them we were here first with our search engine and we are still here first. The upcoming search wars could very well shape up to be the next browser wars and like it or not Apple isn�t even in the race with Spotlight. Don�t get me wrong I�m sure Spotlight is going to integrate well into Tiger and is going to be slick as heck but what spotlight and Google Desktop search are trying to accomplish are two fundamentally different things. Apple is trying to search your local content in an easy to use manner. Google is trying to unify all content in an east to use manner. Personally I would love to see an AppleGoogle partnership.
New and improved version of Sherlock anyone?