How To Install And Use Google Desktop In Linux Mint / Ubuntu

Here’s how to install and use Google Desktop in Linux Mint / Ubuntu:

1. Go to http://desktop.google.com/en/linux/download.html and click the link for the appropriate *.deb package file depending upon whether you are running a 32-bit or 64-bit Linux Mint / Ubuntu.

2. Read the terms of service and click ‘Accept and Install’ to download the *.deb package file.

3. After the *.deb package file has been downloaded and saved, open the terminal and change the directory to where you saved the file. Now, issue the following command at the terminal –

sudo dpkg -i google-desktop-linux_current_i386.deb                —(for 32-bit users)

or

sudo dpkg -i google-desktop-linux_current_amd64.deb           —(for 64-bit users)

4. After the installation is complete, click on ‘Menu>Other>Google Desktop Preferences’.

5. Once again, go through the ‘Google Terms of Service’, choose additional settings like setting Google as your homepage and default browser search, and whether or not to send anonymous usage data / crash reports to Google. Click ‘I agree’ when done.

6. Now, a browser window will open and you can choose your preferences like the type of items that you want to be indexed by Google Desktop for Linux, locations / websites to include / exclude in the Google Desktop for Linux search, and whether you want to remove the deleted files from the search results. Click ‘Save Preferences’ when done.

7. Now, double click the Google Desktop icon in the system tray to launch Google Desktop Search.

8. Type in your search query and get blazing fast results with Google Desktop for Linux! You can click a file in the drop down list to open it.

9. If you prefer to see all the search results in a browser like Google web search results, just click ‘See all results in browser’.

You can click a file name in the browser to open that file.

Not only is the Google Desktop for Linux low on resources, the search results are extremely fast and we have an option of viewing them in browser like the familiar Google web search results.