But the most important aspect of this study is when all the results were reviewed, it was determined that most of the desktop search tools were still too immature for significant business use due primarily to a lack of mature security and overall manageability.
This is definitely bad news for Desktop search companies. Even Federal agencies remain worried of free desktop search tools due to security problems. If security is breached, either by an intruder using an unattended machine or by theft of a desktop or laptop computer, prowlers can find sensitive information faster. Employees of law enforcement agencies, the FDA and other regulatory bodies can easily expose confidential investigations. The second concern is that when employees use free software, agency officials cannot control the applications as much as they control enterprisewide deployments. Until a better desktop search appliance arrives, enterprise search software might be a solution for federal agencies.
Google officials admit their desktop search tool is not ready for enterprise use. According to Aliya Sternstein, the product automatically records e-mail messages, saves copies of Web pages viewed through Internet Explorer and copies content accessed during Secure Sockets Layer sessions, making it available to anyone using the same computer. As Gartner had earlier warned, GDS could pose some risks for users in shared computing environments.
