Google’s enterprise version of the Desktop search program allows IT departments to block certain features from their users. Matt Blotzbach, senior enterprise product manager at Google, said, “We recognize this feature might go against corporate information policies about not moving any information outside of the corporate network or PCs.”

Google recently released a new beta version of its enterprise desktop search application that contains a controversial feature for searching across multiple computers.

That feature, which temporarily stores a user’s data in Google servers Relevant Products/Services from HP, caused a furor after its introduction in the beta version of the consumer-oriented Google Desktop 3. It is meant to allow a user who has Google Desktop 3 beta installed on two or more PCs to synchronize each application’s index and make files’ text available to all PCs. To carry out this synchronization, Google stores index changes in its servers for as long as 30 days.

Several industry groups slammed the feature, which Google calls “search across computers.” The Electronic Frontier Foundation, an online civil liberties watchdog, said the feature makes users more vulnerable to subpoenas from the government and private litigants. Research company Gartner said the feature poses a security risk for companies and might put them in violation of data management regulations.

Not deterred by the controversy, Google quietly released the enterprise edition of Google Desktop 3 beta a few weeks ago, which has all the new features of the consumer version, plus administration and management tools for I.T. departments to control the deployment and use of the application.

The search-across-computers feature is disabled by default in both editions of the product, and the enterprise version allows I.T. departments to make the feature unavailable to their users, said Matt Glotzbach, senior enterprise product manager at Google.

“We recognize this feature might go against corporate information policies about not moving any information outside of the corporate network or PCs,” Glotzbach said.

Gartner recommends that I.T. departments forbid users from installing the consumer version of the application and instead deploy the enterprise version, if they wish, because it can be distributed and managed centrally.

via scitechtoday