Google has been busy these days, releasing a new version of Google Desktop Search and a first version of Google Talk.

The new Google Desktop Search goes a long way toward solving the problems of the first version. There’s a small client this time around, rather than it being purely browser-based, for a start. Better yet, it integrates directly into Outlook, so you can do lightning-fast searches from within the email program.

It still suffers from a basic problem, though — it treats your PC as if it were the Web, and so you can’t do basic things such as search within folders. So I now use two search programs, Google Desktop Search, and Copernic Desktop Search. For quick-and-dirty email searches, I use Google. I use Copernic for everything else.

Google Talk is not as useful a piece of software as Google Desktop Search. It’s a spare-looking chat program, and it handles voice communications particularly well. It lets you communicate with others who use Google Talk, and clients that use the Jabber/XMPPP protocol, such as GAIM.

The problem is that most of the world doesn’t use Google Talk or Jabber/XMPPP — people primarily use AOL Instant Messenger, MSN Messenger, or Yahoo Messenger. And Google Talk won’t talk to those programs.

Until it does, it’ll remain a nice but not particularly useful program. The rumor mill says Google Talk will eventually become a universal messenger to talk to AOL Instant Messenger, MSN Messenger, and Yahoo Messenger. For now, though, it won’t. And so for now, a better bet is Trillian, which is a true universal messenger. Once Google talks to them all, it’ll be a winner, though.

What do you think of Google Talk and Google Desktop Search?

When Google went public a year ago, it famously said in the papers accompanying its offering that its motto would be “Don’t do evil.”

Here is a company, it publicly proclaimed, that will not only create great technology and deliver big profits to investors, but will do so with a sense of morality and fair play all too often missing from the business world.

How times have changed.

In fact, they’ve changed so much that a headline in the New York Times shouts ” Relax, Bill Gates; It’s Google’s Turn as the Villain.” The article cites a widespread feeling throughout Silicon Valley and beyond that Google has gotten arrogant and in its pursuit of world domination has started to do serious harm to competitors and the technology landscape.

To a certain extent, the criticism goes along with the territory — get too big and successful and the nay-sayers inevitably come out.

But there’s also a disturbing truth at work here. Google has gotten arrogant, and the best example is a little-reported incident in mid-July. CNet ran an article warning that Google has amassed enormous amounts of private information about people. And to show how easily Google can be used to pry into people’s private lives, it used Google searches to publish personal information about Google CEO Eric Schmidt, including his salary, neighborhood, his hobbies and his political donations.

Google was not amused, and promptly said it would refuse to talk to any CNet reporters for a year — in essence blackballing CNet.

Imagine if Microsoft had done the same thing — the outcry would be tremendous. But with Google, the act was met by silence, because of all the good will the company has generated.

There are other disturbing signs of arrogance as well. The Times article reported that Google fired am employee after he had joked in his blog that the on-site gym, free meals and other perks Google provides are only offered so that employees would work longer hours without complaining.

So it’s clear that Google is guilty of arrogance and hubris. But has it crossed the line into evil? Let me know what you think, below.

Has Google become evil? Let me know what you think.

Some disturbing news for Firefox fans — for the first time ever, the browser’s market share dropped, to 8.07 percent in July from 8.71 percent in June. At the same time, IE market share grew by the same amount, to 87.20 percent in July from 86.56 percent last month.

Why the slippage? There are several reasons, I think. There are an increasing number of Firefox vulnerabilities being discovered — and updating Firefox on your PC can still be kludgy. Add to that the publicity surrounding the upcoming IE 7, which will have Firefox features like tabbed browsing, and there’s a clear reason why some people are turning away from Firefox.

This may not be a temporary blip. The release of IE 7 will present a major challenge to Firefox.

If Firefox is to regain momentum and gain more market share, it’s going to have to figure out a better way to update software on PC, and it’ll also have to come out with compelling new features as well. Tabbed browsing by itself won’t cut it any more, once tabs hit IE.

What features do you think Firefox needs added? Let me know, below.

What features does Firefox need to add in order to compete with IE 7?

Related link: http://myitforum.com/blog/osug/archive/2005/07/11/11051.aspx

This is the intro to an article I posted on the Ohio SMS Users Group blog. If you’re looking for Inexpensive (and good) Computer-Based Training and Resources, check out the link.

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the Institue of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Computer Society are two professional organizations that provide several Computer-Based Training Courses and electronic books free to current members. And considering the amount of training available, the cost of membership is very reasonable. This article offers a brief overview of the resources offered by each organization.

Read the article.

Suggestions for other good (and inexpensive) computer based training? Post here!

Related link: http://www.microsoft.com/smserver/downloads/2003/tools/msupdates.mspx

From the ITMU Web Site: “Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003 Service Pack 1 uses the Inventory Tool for Microsoft Updates (ITMU) to determine the update compliance of managed systems. This tool provides integration with updates offered by Windows Update and Microsoft Update.”

The ITMU currently supports the following products:

Before installing the ITMU, review the Pre-Installation Guide.
For more information, refer to the Ohio SMS Users Group blog and myITforum.com. In particular, review the ITMU Pre-Installation Flow Chart.

Greg

Testing or implementing the ITMU? Post your thoughts!

You’re not imagining it — the older your PC gets, and the more you use it, the slower it gets. The phenomenon is called “WinRot.” It’s caused by lots of things: programs with sloppy uninstall routines that litter your hard drive with their leavings; conflicts between several different versions of the same DLL; Registry gunk; invisible startup programs; and more.

Microsoft claims that it’s got the problem on its radar, and that Vista will stop the rot. Vista will include a control panel applet that monitors system performance, and that will suggest what startup programs may be causing problems. Microsoft also says it’s cleaning up the plumbing to fix the DLL conflict problem. And it’s adding new features such as automatic disk defragmentation that it says will help as well.

I’m only partially convinced. Some of the rot-stopping features, such as “SuperFetch” are essentially juiced-up versions of existing features, and don’t seem as if they’ll necessarily do much good. For example, even if you regularly defrag your system, it still slows down over time, and so automatic defragging won’t solve the problem.

Still, it’s heartening to know that Microsoft recognizes WinRot, and will at least partly solve it. On the other hand, the less WinRot there is, the less excuse there is to buy a new PC every year or two.

Do you think Vista will solve the WinRot problem?