Google Releases Desktop for Mac

[engine]

Google on Wednesday will release Google Desktop for Mac, marking the first time the search giant will make its desktop tool available to Mac users. Mac users already have a search tool with Apple’s Spotlight, but Google said its utility will work alongside the Mac OS X 10.4 feature perfectly.

“We designed Google Desktop for Mac to be a companion for Spotlight,” said Rose Yao, Google Desktop for Mac Product Manager. “Google Desktop searches users’ Web history and you can set it up to search Gmail too.”

Google Releses Desktop for Mac [macworld.com]

[travelin cat]

This is interesting, not sure I need that product enough to install something that MAY send out info from my Mac to the big G or anybody else.

Is there any way to monitor what info is being sent from the mac with any of the utilities that come with OSX?

If not, are there other apps that can monitor what and where output is doing/going?

[whoisgregg]

I've heard good stuff about Little Snitch for monitoring network traffic but can't personally vouch for it.

[ahmedtheking]

Ah Little Snitch is the bomb! It really makes you understand what your mac's not telling you and what apps are calling home!

[ahmedtheking]

Just checked out that Google Desktop: what's the point? It's basically Quicksilver or Spotlight! I'd rather have them than google snooping around!

[LunaC]

I'm new to the Mac world so I might not be understanding this properly, but I did a bit of checking before deciding if I wanted to install.

I found out it runs as root and installs a kernal extension without mentioning it. If I'm understanding correctly couldn't that cause potentially large problems for the entire OS if the beta has any errors?

Even without that I'm not really seeing any benefit to it. I'll stick with spotlight, so far that's working fine for me.