- Google has just a launched a new search app for Windows
- It comes with a built-in search tool that can quickly find your files
- It’s currently experimental and isn’t available for everyone
I use both Windows 11 and macOS Tahoe in my day-to-day life, and comparing them lets me see how they stack up against each other. One area where Windows is far behind is search (especially now that Apple has powered up Spotlight), and if there’s one aspect that’s guaranteed to make you pull your hair out when using Microsoft’s system, it’s this.
But hope is on the horizon. It comes not as an update from Microsoft that fixes Windows’ shoddy search tool, but in the form of an app from Google that picks up the slack instead. That’s because Google has just released an experimental new app that brings the company’s search prowess to your desktop.
As described in an official blog post, the Google app has arrived on Windows, and it has a built-in search feature that can scan your installed apps and computer files to locate what you’re after. Its search can also cover Google Drive and the web, too, in case you’re not just on the hunt for something on your PC, while the included Google Lens functionality lets you look up, search for and translate anything on your screen.
Putting Google’s search skills to use on your computer already gives me hope that it’ll outperform Windows’ own search tool (although that wouldn’t be difficult). But the icing on the cake is the way you invoke Google’s search box: by pressing the Alt and Space keys together.
That mimics macOS’s Command-Space shortcut, which launches the similar Spotlight search tool, and gives you an easy-to-remember key combination that you can bring up anywhere and anytime you need it.
Showing promise
I’ve grown so sick of Windows’ lousy search tool that I long since gave up on it, and instead I now use an app called Everything.
This indexes your drives and pulls up real-time search results as you type, and its power and ease-of-use have made it one of my favorite must-install apps. The problem, though, is that Everything looks and feels pretty dated, and it can take a while to load as it indexes any new changes.
My hope is that the Google desktop app can one day replace Everything on my PC, giving me a Mac-like search tool that is simple to launch yet deeply powerful.
That said, the Google app is an experimental offering at the moment, so it might not be without its fair share of bugs and quirks. It’s also only available through Google’s Search Labs program, which is not available to everyone – users based in the UK like myself can’t use it yet, for example.
Still, it looks like the app has a lot of promise. If it can provide a more competent alternative to Windows’ built-in search tool, I’m all for it.
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alexblake.techradar@gmail.com (Alex Blake)
