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For six years, the Internet Nexus served as my technology blog, but I've since started blogging at the SuperSite Blog instead. If you're looking for the blog, please head there. --Paul

Monday, August 22, 2005

Google Updates Desktop Search with Sidebar

Me, in WinInfo:

On Monday, Google updated its perpetually-in-beta Google Desktop Search application to version 2, adding an intriguing and extensible new component called Sidebar. Like the Windows Vista feature it emulates, the Google Sidebar presents discrete panes of information that can be filled with various bits of functionality. The base Sidebar, for example, includes panes dedicated to email, news, photos, weather, and related features.

The new Sidebar component is optional in Google Desktop Search 2 and can be replaced by a deskbar component, which sits in the Windows taskbar, or a floating deskbar, which hovers over the desktop. Users can optionally choose to use the application's advanced features, which sends information about the Web sites you visit to Google so that the company can provide personalized services. Google Desktop Search and the Sidebar do not, however, display any ads, and Google says that a controversial Web caching feature from previous versions is now disabled by default.

I installed the Sidebar this morning, and it's not horrible. But it's clearly a beta: When you come back to the desktop from a game that uses a different resolution than the desktop, all the Sidebar panels resize and then don't go back to the correct settings, which stinks.

Related: Google Desktop 2 Beta
Related: Download plug-ins

[ Posted at 5:31 PM | Permalink ]