35. Browse Search Results

BEFORE YOU BEGIN	SEE ALSO
Search Your PC with Google Desktop	Browse and Search with the Timeline

The search results you see displayed by Google Desktop differ from those you see on a normal Google pagefor example, you see email messages and information specific to your PC rather than information from the Internet. Here's how to understand and use the search results returned by Google Desktop.

View All Results

When you do a search with Google Desktop, all of the matching results are initially displayed, no matter what those results areemails, files, websites you've visited, and chats. Each search result includes a link; the first several lines of the file, website, email, or chat; and the date the file was last accessed. Browse until you find a file in which you're interested. Note that when Google Desktop finds web pages you've visited, it shows you a thumbnail of them.

Open a File

To open a file, click its link. It opens in the program that created itfor example, a web page you've visited opens in your browser, and a Word document opens in Word.

Open a Folder

For each file that Google Desktop finds, there is an Open Folder link next to it. Click this link, and Windows Explorer opens to the folder that contains the file. This is useful when you're trying to track down not just a file, but a group of related files you've stored in the same folder.

Tip

Google Desktop makes a copy of information in the files it finds and stores it in its cachea special area used for Google Desktop storage. Next to each of your search results, you see xx cached, where xx is a number. Click that link to see a copy of the file from the cache. The results are displayed in your browser, not in the program that created the file, so it's a quick way to preview the information for which you're looking. Google typically keeps only one cached version of a file. But if you've visited a website multiple times, it keeps a copy of a snapshot of the site for each of the times you've visited.

Sort by Relevance

Google Desktop returns search results with the newest (most recently modified) on top and the oldest at the end of the results list. You can instead display the results so that the most relevant results appear on top, and less relevant results are displayed in descending order. To do it, click the Sort by Relevance link in the upper-right corner of the screen.

Filter the Results

Instead of seeing all results grouped together, you can filter them to only show emails, files, websites you've visited, or chats. To do this, click the appropriate link at the top of the search results.

When you're viewing files, you can further filter the search results to display only a particular file type; for example, only Word files or only .jpg files. After you've clicked the Files link at the top of the search results page, open the View drop-down list, choose the file type you want displayed, and click Go; only those file types are displayed in the results list.

Remove Results

If you would prefer that certain search results not show up in future searches, you can remove them from the Google Desktop index. Click the Remove from Index link in the upper-right corner of the search results page. A new page appears. Check the boxes next to the results you want to remove from the index and then click the Remove button. Note that when you do this, the files themselves remain on your PC, but they are removed from the Google Desktop index and won't show up on any future searches.