I just installed it and I'm astounded. Sooooo much better than the built in windows search. One thing it does that I wasn't aware of, is optionally integrate desktop search results in google web searches. Which will help me out a lot when I'm searching for something like software I need to re-install and I can find that I have the install file somewhere on my computer and I should delete it or use that file for the install. Anyhow, it's megafast, and it does my email too, which is huge because I use IMAP and searching capabilities are extremely limited with the mail clients I have experience with. I also use exchange which it indexes, and I have a lot of archive files (for instance, one for each of several clients that use exchange) that it's nice to be able to search.
From what I've heard it also incoporates AIM, Outlook, and other text mediums in searches. How exactly does that work? Are conversations taken place with Google Desktop installed instantly indexed as they are written?
I really like the desktop search as well. I don't use it that often, but when I need to find something, it sure makes it so much easier.
Interesting. What level of security issues have been discovered? I'd imagine it's got the potential to do some real damage if exposed improperly.
There is a known security issue in that if you are an NT/2000/XP without full rights to your machine, it will expose files that you do not have access to. Not an issue for me though - although I wouldn't want end users using it on a network I administered.