CNET: Will Google say hello to IM?

Ripping apart the Google Desktop Search application, coders are discovering artifacts that may - or may not - suggest the future direction of Google's development efforts. One security consultant, finding a "google_im://" protocol in the code jumped to the conclusion that this suggested a future release of an instant messaging client. But Google representatives said that protocol referred only to the ability of Desktop Search to log and search IM feeds from AOL and Microsoft (which it does). Besides, Google already has an IM client, but hasn't pushed its use. Other artifacts suggest that even before the product became known internally at Google as "Fluffy Bunny," it had been named the slightly more ominous "Total Recall," a tidbit the Google folks confirmed.

Last week there was confusion over whether the most recent code name had been Fluffy Bunny (yes) or Puffin (an earlier product). One can imagine a marketing department person asking the coders to choose a different moniker than the Total Recall name that might inspire privacy concerns, perhaps reminded of the U.S. government's ham-handed naming of its internet monitoring application Carnivore, which has since been severely hobbled by Congress. The choice of Fluffy Bunny may even have been intended to be sarcastic.