Google Desktop

Google has done more than just conquer the Internet--with Google Desktop, it has conquer your PC as well. The program brings the same kind of fast, accurate searching to your desktop that the site does to the Web. It searches as you type, and displays the results in your browser. If you want to spend the time, you can use sophisticated syntax for narrowing your search, but doing just a simple search will do the trick more often than not. One nice touch: When the program is installed and you search via the Google Web site, the results will also include those from your PC.

PC World readers polled cite the simple, familiar Google interface as a big plus, and also like the program's speed. Says one respondent: "Google Desktop can find files extremely fast, even on large and cluttered hard drives."

--Preston Gralla