Biz Briefs: Google 2.0

Six years after its launch as a free search tool, Google wants to mind your business. Searching the Web is great, the pitch goes, but what about those files scattered around your hard drive? To address the mass of digital material on corporate computers, a new Google desktop search program lets business users hunt for e-mails, documents and even Lotus Notes messages buried in missing folders. Like most of Google's offerings, it's free.

Consider it another step in Google's plans for generating new business from corporate customers. Boeing and Morgan Stanley already rely on Google's $30,000 Search Appliance, a hardware device, to catalog company data. A scaled-down version, the $3,000 Google Mini, is aimed at smaller firms. Microsoft is hot on Google's heels with a version of its own free desktop search tool and a promised corporate version as well. --J.C.