Google's New PC Search Tool Poses Risks
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NEW YORK - People who use public or workplace computers for e-mail, instant messaging and Web searching have a new privacy risk to worry about: Google's free new tool that indexes a PC's contents for quickly locating data.    If it's installed on computers at libraries and Internet cafes, users could unwittingly allow people who follow them on the PCs, for example, to see sensitive information in e-mails they've exchanged...
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Search engine leader Google has been forced to respond to a security vulnerability in its Google Desktop Search software, which reportedly made it possible for computer intruders to view desktop search results via the Web.
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Google Inc. (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research) on Thursday rolled out a preliminary version of its new desktop search tool, making the first move against
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Google&#39;s new Desktop Search software is a muscle car among search engines, racing through personal data stored inside your computer to instantly find things you can&#39;t easily locate.
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Google released a free tool today that lets people simultaneously search the Web and their personal computers for information, a move analysts described as a potential blow to rivals. -The Washington Post
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People who use public or workplace computers for e-mail, instant messaging and Web searching have a new privacy risk to worry about: Google&#39;s free tool that indexes a PC&#39;s contents for quickly locating data.
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There is some confusion about threats posed by the new search tool. Google says common sense is enough of a patch. By Thomas Claburn.
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HOUSTON - A computer scientist and two of his graduate students at Rice University found a security flaw in a search tool distributed by Google, allowing the popular Web site to fix the problem.
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Google has released a tool that lets people search documents, e-mails or spreadsheets stored on a PC.
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Google confirmed the findings of a security researcher who warned that a security hole in the Google Toolbar could be exploited to download malicious files or launch phishing attacks.
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With four in the last week, is Google the next security buffoon? Analysis Google's desktop search application is vulnerable to an exploit that allows a determined attacker to remotely run most programs installed on a victim's machine. The flaw is one of at least four security holes to visit Google this past week, demonstrating that the search king, despite the god-like aura it enjoys for its pleasing software designs, remains a mere mortal in the security cosmos.â¦
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(InfoWorld) - Google has complained to federal antitrust officials that the search tool in Microsoft'sÂ Windows VistaÂ Â discourages customers from using its own search utility, the company confirmed Sunday. Stories posted to the Web sites of The New York Times (registration required)Â and theÂ Seattle Post-IntelligencerÂ SaturdayÂ first revealedÂ that Google's complaint centered on Vista's built-in desktop search software, dubbed Instant Search. According to both newspapers, Google accused Microsoft of designing Vista to discourage users from running its indexing and search software. On Sunday, Google spokesman Ricardo Reyes confirmed the charge. "Microsoft's current approach with Vista desktop search violates its agreement with the government and hurts consumers." he said in an e-mail to Computerworld. "The search boxes built throughout Vista are hard-wired to Microsoft's own desktop search product, with no way for users to choose an alternate provider from these visible search access points. Likewise, Vista makes it impractical to turn off Microsoft's search index." According to postings on Microsoft's support forums, the only way to completely disable Vista's search is to stop the Windows Search service in the Microsoft Management Console. Microsoft disputed Google's charges. "We've been working with state and federal antitrust officials for the past two years to ensure that there are no problems with any of the features in Windows Vista," said company spokesman Jack Evans. "These desktop search issues were reviewed at length with regulators prior to the release of Windows Vista and resulted in more than a dozen changes at their request." Even so, Microsoft will consider more changes to Vista, Evans added. "While we donât believe there are any compliance concerns with desktop search, we are committed to going the extra mile to resolve this issue, so long as the changes Google is requesting do nothing to undermine the privacy and security of computer users." During aÂ March 2007 hearingÂ conducted by Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, the federal judge who oversees the 2002 Microsoft consent decree, the government's status report noted that a complaint had been filed, but did not identify the company. "At the last status conference, plaintiffs reported that they had just received a middleware-related complaint," theÂ status reportÂ read. "Since then, plaintiffs have been investigating this complaint, including obtaining significant additional information from Microsoft and the complainant." Google had previously raised concerns about search in Microsoft'sÂ Internet Explorer 7Â browser with federal officials. In May 2006, however,Â federal officials rebuffed Google, saying that IE 7 users could easily switch search providers and that computer makers could set the default search engine in IE 7 before shipping systems. Google has also filed similar complaints over search in both IE 7 and Vista with the European Union's antitrust commission. Those complaints have not been settled. According to The New York Times, the U.S. Department of Justice refused to pursue the Google complaint, andÂ Thomas Barnett,Â the assistant U.S. attorney general for antitrust, sent a memo to numerous state attorneys general in May asking them to also reject the complaint. Prosecutors in several of those states, however, have reportedly decided to investigate the Google concerns whether the federal government goes along or not, a decision that has Barnett reconsidering the agency's position. E-mails and phone calls asking several of the states involved with the 2004 Microsoft settlement to comment were not returned Sunday. Barnett's division will present its next report on Microsoft's progress in meeting the 2002 settlement to Kollar-Kotelly in a hearing scheduled for June 26. Â
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Google started a new sensation with its launch of Desktop Search tool for windows platform. It has its share of bugs and limitations at this moment, but analysts around the world have praised it and have high hopes for the future.
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SAN FRANCISCO A university computer scientist and two of his students have discovered a potentially serious security flaw in the desktop search tool for personal computers that was recently distributed by Google.
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Security researchers have discovered a serious flaw in Google Inc.'s desktop software that could be used to wreak havoc on a victim's computer.
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Google said it was blocking searches generated by a new worm, Santy.A, which were being used to find and infect vulnerable computers on the Internet.
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Google  is introducing a  new search service -- strictly for computer programmers only.