Earlier this week, Google announced the long-awaited release of its desktop client for Mac owners. Google Desktop users will be able to index content from their hard drive in order to find information about their documents, music, e-mails and pictures, as well as content from the web, quickly and easily.
In March of 2004, Google launched its desktop software for PC users. Since then, Google has developed numerous gadgets for the client, and has unrolled several major upgrades to the application. All the while, Mac users have waited patiently for the folks in Mountain View to throw some love in their direction.
The Mac community can now breathe a collective sigh of relief; Google has finally come around.
The initial beta version of the Google Desktop software became available for download on Wednesday. At the Official Google Desktop Blog, the development team lets Mac users in on all the features they’ve been missing and what they can expect from the software:
Users also don’t need to remember whether the information they’re looking for lives on their Mac or on the web. By hitting the command key twice, users get a Quick Search Box that offers a single starting point for searching both the web and their desktop. As users begin to type, the Quick Search Box instantly begins displaying results, making it easy to quickly launch applications and find files.
And just like Google web search, each Desktop search result includes the file name and a brief snippet with the search term highlighted so users know they’re opening the file they want.
Google Desktop for the Mac is still in beta version and is only available in the English language so far. The client runs on both PowerPC and Intel machines with Mac OS X 10.4+ and is compatible with the Safari, Firefox, and Camino web browsers.
