Google Desktop
Like all the other Desktop search programs, Google Desktop indexes all the user's files for good searching. This is different from Windows XP's integral search function that scans entire files instead of a list. This is a time saving process.
Google Desktop features the following functionality:
Sidebar: The key new feature is the sidebar for Windows. Google is deciding to add this feature to Linux. The side bar contains different gadgets that display information. The Sidebar comes with the following gadgets:
Email- to view your Gmail messages; Scratch Pad - to store random notes and they are automatically saved; News – To give the latest headlines from Google News, and how long ago they were written. The News panel is adapted according to the type of news
Photos – To exhibit a slideshow of photos from ‘My Pictures’; Web Clips – To show recent posts from your RSS feeds; Weather – To show the current weather for a location given by the user; Google Talk - If Google Talk is installed on your computer, double clicking the window title docks it to one's sidebar.
Additional gadgets can be downloaded from the Gadgets & Plug-ins gallery or by clicking ‘Add Gadgets’ that exhibits a gallery to allow the user to browse both installed and other gadgets. All gadgets can be moved and rearranged.
Another feature with the sidebar is alerts. When the Sidebar is minimized, new e-mail and news can be shown on a pop-up window above the Windows Task Bar. To configure this, you have to click on the arrow in the right-top of the sidebar.
Deskbars: This is not a new feature. The deskbar is a box that allows one to type your search query directly from one's desktop. Web results open in a browser window and selected computer results are displayed in the ‘Quick Find’ box. A Deskbar can be a fixed deskbar in your Windows Taskbar or a Floating Deskbar that one can place anywhere one wants on its desktop.
Google Desktop add-in for Microsoft Outlook: This is a new feature. You can search all of your Outlook e-mails using Google Desktop's Index in spite of using Outlook's search functions.
For Lotus Notes, a similar plugin is there. It allows one to search all of its Lotus Notes e-mails using Google Desktop's Index. Here, only local Lotus Notes databases are indexed.
Gadgets & Plug-ins: These are interactive mini-applications that can be located anywhere on the user's desktop to show new email, photos, weather and modified news. Other gadgets are clock, calendar, to do list, scratch pad etc. You can find gadgets made by Google and by third-parties also at the Gadgets & Plug-ins gallery.
Google provides an SDK for people longing to write plug-ins and it is called as Google Desktop SDK. This plug-ins can improve the program functionality such as permission of indexing of more file types. Besides the main official blog, another blog- Google Desktop APIs blog has been produced chiefly for developers. In this, a developer hierarchy called the Google Desktop Hall of Fame is produced in which programmers can go forward on the basis of their gadgets' number and reputation.
The SDK also permits third-party applications to use the search facilities offered by Google Desktop Search e.g. the file manager Directory Opus provides incorporated Google Desktop Search support.
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