It’s not enough that spammers have made my referrer stats completely unusable, Google Desktop also helps them land the top spot in search results too by indexing spam in Outlook (flagged as such by filters mind you). Google Desktop is now gone from my PC. Nice trick to close the uninstall process on a feedback collection form though.
I’ve already commented on this company’s tendency to spread itself far too broadly and thinly, and this is just another example. Spam in all its forms is Google’s primary challenge (it’s to Google what security issues are to Microsoft, only this is less blatantly obvious), and looking at how they allocate resources and diversify into a new beta every quarter I’m not sure they see it clearly, or care. I’m finding Google web search results less and less useful… Well, I’m sure there will be a Refocus Hero to save Google a few years from now when it has drifted enough to bank itself into a no-growth/high costs zone.