indexing

Technically, from what I have read, most tech media say no, you should not be compromised.

Do I trust it on my machine? No. I can search my own PC without 3rd party help. To me, it seems a doorway waiting to be exploited.

thats exactly what i thought!

the tool bar up the side looks very cool though and quite useful. does anyone know it there is a (free/openSource) program that does roughly the same thing but without the indexing?

Are you referring to the Google toolbar, or Google Desktop search? I think it's safe to run the toolbar and most of it's features (which I do), without enabling desktop search.

no, sorry... i was talking about the desktop search. when i said toolbar i ment "sidebar". sorry for the confusion!

Well, if it's useful to you, I don't see much harm. At least that's what they say. When you think about it, Google has too much at stake to become a security threat. I'm just saying that personally, I can live without it, and thus will never find out first-hand if it compromises my system.