oogle and AOL are both launching competing desktop search engines that are powerful tools for keeping track of the contents of your computer. Google has been first off the mark with its free desktop search engine, while AOL?s is still in the testing phase. Google?s software is in the ?beta? or ?test? stage, which means all the potential bugs may not have been eliminated. So be careful it?s not put on a machine at work or you may soon find you?ve crashed the network. In other words, try this at home only.

Google?s Desktop Search is available only for computers running Windows XP or Windows 2000 (updated to SP3).

It works by automatically recording your e-mail, computer files, chats, and the web pages you?ve viewed.

It also finds Word, Excel and PowerPoint files stored on the computer.You can then do a full text search of the information, freeing you from having to manually organise your files, e-mails, and bookmarks. Google says that none of the information can be shared with the company and the company can?t access it remotely even if it gets a subpoena ordering it to do so.

However you still have to be careful about your personal data when using a shared computer, especially if you regularly use computers at an Internet cafe. If you use such a computer, someone else may come on after and retrieve data such as the text of the e-mails you received, passwords and other data you may have input into sites while you were surfing.

How do you ensure this does not happen? Before using a shared computer, check to see if the Google ?Desktop Search? logo (a sort of multicoloured swirl) is in the system tray at the lower right corner of the computer desktop.

If it?s there then you must right-click on the logo to shut the programme down so it stops recording your session. I have previously advised readers that they should always clear the cache and cookies in the Internet browser they use on a shared machine.

For Microsoft Internet Explorer go into the ?Tools? section, click on ?Internet options?. In the panel that appears you?ll see buttons to clear the cache and cookies storage areas. You must also go into the ?Content? section of the panel and click on the ?AutoComplete? passwords button.

This opens another panel where you can delete all the forms and passwords that Internet Explorer may have stored while you were surfing. Explorer can be configured to store such personal information so that it can be automatically generated the next time you have to submit personal information or passwords when accessing sites. I have it turned on at my desktop machine. It?s a useful feature, but dangerous on a shared machine.

You can test out Google?s engine by going to www.google.com and clicking on the section entitled ?More?. This brings you to the ?Google Services? page. You then must click on ?Google Labs? to get to the page where you can download the beta software to set up your own internal desktop search engine.

The ?Google Services? page has a whole load of helpful and free tools for you to download or use online. There?s the great ?Blogger?, which allows you to set up your own blogging site and through which you can easily post scribblings to your own personal blog page. This is the tool I used to set up the www.SecureBermuda.com web site, where I post security updates.

There?s the online ?Translate Tool?, which I use regularly to read the online newspapers here in France when my language skills fail me (which is often). I?ve raved about the Picasa Photo Organiser in a previous column and I?m still raving. It?s the best tool I have found for indexing, organising and posting the image files on your computer. Download it, as it is a ?must have? piece of software, especially if you own a digital camera.

There are browser buttons and a Google toolbar, which will be put into your browser, allowing you to do a Google search directly from your browser without having to go to the Google search page.

The ?Google Labs? section contains ten new tools being developed and tested, including the Google Desktop Search engine. The Google SMS (Short Message Service) tool allows you to make specialised search queries from your mobile phone or device and get precise information, such as phone book listings, dictionary definitions and product prices. Search queries can only be done by sending a text message to a special US number.

Another tool allows you to add a specialised Google search engine on your site. You can specialise the Internet search to mirror the content of your Web site.

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Someone in Bermuda sent me along an article from the Washington Post newspaper, which outlines a new company set up in the Bahamas to data mine personal information and sell it on to businesses.

The company, Global Information Group Ltd., intends to bring together large databases of international records and analyse them for corporations, government agencies and other information services looking for security checks.

It?s run by a former US intelligence official named Ben H. Bell III, who helped set up the database for the Bush administration?s proposed aircraft passenger screening programme (known as CAPPS II).

A company spokesperson told the Washington Post that they set up in the Bahamas because the law there is ?not as cumbersome as US regulations?.

They said the company?s location will help them collect information from abroad because businesses and information brokers would be more likely to ship electronic records to the Bahamas than to the US.

?Holy cow. It looks like Bahamas is courting the data miners,? the concerned reader wrote in his e-mail.

@EDITRULE: