• by Ross Fadner , October 14, 2004

Search powerhouse Google beat search rivals Yahoo! AskJeeves and MSN to the punch in launching the first desktop search service Thursday. The Google Desktop, currently in beta, is a downloadable software application that brings Google technology to users' personal computers. The program searches for anything users store on their hard drives, from files and documents to old saved instant messaging conversations, in addition to the most recent Web pages they've visited.

Marissa Mayer, Google's director of consumer Web products, said the company decided to move forward with its desktop search in response to overwhelming consumer demand. Mayer said that consumers don't usually remember where they saw a piece of information, but can usually approximate when; she said the new tool enables users to sort results either by date or relevance.

Google's crawling technology, which users download to their personal computers, does not communicate with the company's servers, said Mayer. Rather, it is a stand-alone piece of software contained on a user's hard drive, so users' privacy is secure.

The desktop search can be customized to not retrieve certain files--a feature that's especially useful to protect the privacy of individuals who share computers with others such as family members, said Mayer. Currently, the Web history search function is only available for Internet Explorer, but Google is looking into making its desktop searcher compatible with other Web browsers, IM clients (only AOL Instant Messenger is currently supported), and file types such as like PDF documents in the near future, said Mayer.

Google has no immediate plans to monetize the service through advertising. However, because the desktop searcher also crawls the Web, advertisers will be able to bid on keywords typed into it, just like at Google.com, which will in turn contribute to Google's ad revenue incrementally.

Separately, Overture has upgraded its services for advertisers. The first of three enhancements is Advanced Match, which combines Phrase Match and Broad Match into a single service. The program enables advertisers to bid automatically on similar keywords that might not appear on their keyword list. For example if the keyword "running shoes" appeared on an advertiser's keyword list, Advanced Match would also trigger a bid for "shoes for running."

A new budgeting feature is also now available to advertisers. The program lets them specify a monthly or daily budget that spreads out strategic bidding based on budget restraints. The third enhancement tracks URLs across Overture's Precision and Content Match services. Tracking helps advertisers separate and monitor which traffic comes from the Advanced or Standard Match services. An Overture spokesperson said URL tracking will be compatible with "several top third-party analytics programs."

The spokesperson said the enhancements came in response to advertisers' pleas to make some of the more "tedious" aspects of search marketing easier.