Search Google Docs and Picasa from your desktop

Now that Google Docs has become such an essential tool, it’s useful to have some way to search for documents within it from your desktop.

After all, why should searching for a Google Doc or spreadsheet be excluded from Finder?

Precipitate allows you to exactly this by enabling you to search for Google Docs within Finder or Google Desktop. All of your Google Docs will be returned as results in the same way as any other document saved on your machine.

Not only that but it also searches Google Bookmarks and Picasa Web Albums too.

On installation, you’re asked to enter your Google account credentials and select which of the three aforementioned Google apps you’d like Precipitate to integrate into Finder or Google Desktop.

Precipitate works by creating files on your machine that are imported by Spotlight. It then periodically checks with the Google server to verify if any changes have been made.

The only downside is that changes may take up to an hour to be visible in local searches. One extra bonus, though, is that a small search box in the Precipitate interface allows you to search your System Preferences window for all kinds of preferences available on your system.

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