INFORMATION HIGHWAY Desktop search is next Google goal

Microsoft prepares to strike back with its own desktop search.
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Some of the real estate coveted most by the Internet giants isn't on the Internet at all. It's on your computer hard drive.
Google Inc. unveiled a free software tool Thursday that lets searchers tap into the files on their PC desktops when they hunt for information on the Web. For instance, a Google query for "Lakers" will return not only Web pages but also every e-mail, instant message or Word document on the searcher's computer that mentions the basketball team.
The move is expected to unleash a flurry of similar products from rivals seeking to create new territory for advertising.
But Google's biggest adversary may be the king of the PC desktop -- Microsoft Corp.
"There's billions at stake now," said Danny Sullivan, editor of SearchEngineWatch.com. "The battlefields are expanding."
And overlapping. Google and Microsoft are moving more aggressively onto each other's turf.
Coming soon
Microsoft is planning to release its own Web and desktop search engines by the end of the year in an effort to head off up-and-comers like Google. Longhorn, the version of Windows expected in late 2006 at the earliest, is expected to let users search the Web and the contents of their computers without having to open a browser.
So Google is trying to establish a beachhead on the PC desktop first.
Google executives said there was a more straightforward explanation for creating Google Desktop: It fits their mission of helping to organize the world's information.