New features are being added to the Google Desktop search program, including greater customization of its floating tool palette - Sidebar - and the ability to send information directly to another desktop, search on multiple computers at the same time, and password-protect the search function, reports CNET. The improvements pose a challenge to Microsoft's dominance of the desktop - but also relies on the trust of users in Google's ability to safeguard their privacy, writes Reuters. In essence, Google Desktop gathers all manner of data on one's computer and makes it available via another, if the user chooses to store it on Google's servers.

Google said it encrypts the data and would delete copies from its servers within 30 days. It also excludes from transfer any password-protected files and secure web pages; users themselves can choose to exclude folders or files.

"This is starting to amount to a new operating system, though Google would never describe it as such," Gartner analyst Allen Weiner is quoted as saying. "It is going to be Microsoft's challenge to offer the same level of flexibility and power for both consumers and content creators."