"You can download it for free from desktop.google.com. And when you download it, it's a very small download, only 400K. And when you download and install it, it creates an index of your hard drive, so you can then easily search any item on your hard drive. And in addition, we also search your IM chats on AOL as well as your Web history."
The controversy about the software…surrounds its ability to bypass usernames and passwords…and allow others to view personal messages….when it is installed on public computers. That's not an issue if you want to use it on your own PC. Mayer says Google hasn't yet decided how it will make money from the application. In the meantime, it's Gmail, email service that gives users one gigabyte of storage…is still in the testing, invitation only phase. When will it be released?
"We now have millions of users. And generally with a beta, we'll keep a product in a beta until it's feature complete enough and rich enough in terms of the user experience to do a final release."
Google isn't saying when that will be. Bloomberg Boot Camp, I'm Fred Fishkin.