Today's hard drives are getting bigger and bigger and it can often take forever to find something, and the Windows search tool leaves a lot to be desired.

Google is trying to improve this situation with the launch of its own desktop search tool. Once installed it will perform a background search of your PC's entire contents, and then simply add new items as they are created.

You can select which items to index: Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents; AOL/AIM chats; web history (including secure web pages, if you wish); text video and other media; and email (Gmail, Outlook, Outlook Express and Thunderbird only).

Once installed, users can search using the Google website, and a link to a desktop search for the same item is included at the top of the page. Handy.