CYBERSPACE – As the competition in the developing area of desktop search heats up, Google has upped the ante, adding new functionality, including the ability to search multiple computers simultaneously and to send data directly to the desktop of another user.Included with Google’s free Desktop Search program is a Sidebar tool, a floating menu offering customizable news, weather reports, stock quotes, RSS feeds and other information, all of which can be tailored by the user.

Google Desktop search can now be locked with a password to prevent other users from searching for files on your desktop, which had been a major shortcoming of previous releases.

Users with home networks, and other operators who regularly make use of more than one machine at a time, can now use Google’s tools to search for files and data on multiple boxes at once, even if they aren’t connected to the internet. Once the function called “Search Across Computers” has been enabled, Web browsing history, and text copies of documents, are automatically transferred to the other computer that has Google Desktop installed. Subsequently, when a user searches one computer, the other box is searched automatically, as well.

According to Google representatives, Google deletes copies of such files from their own servers within 30 days, and stores the data in encrypted form. Google also automatically excludes from transfer any password-protected files, secure Web pages, as well as any other folders or files specified by the user.

Google is not alone in pumping out new tools in the desktop search market; Microsoft unveiled MSN Search Toolbar with Windows Desktop Search early last summer, and plans to include a sidebar function of its own when the company releases its new OS, Windows Vista, later this year. Not to be left out, Apple is in the desktop search game with Dashboard for the Mac OS, and Yahoo has its own search function “Yahoo Widgets.”