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Google Desktop 2 Live
An anonymous reader writes "Combining desktop search and the Google Sidebar, Google Desktop 2 is now available for download. Dozens of new third-party sidebar panels are now available, Google said. Also launched was Google Desktop for Enterprise (free)."
Breath fresh Google Air (tm) as you drive you your Google (tm) Car will sipping on your Google(tm) latte while... And we are worried about Microsoft?
I installed the original Desktop search, but since moving computers hadn't bothered to reinstall. I have just installed this new version and it is one very slick little app. I don't usually like giving up screen real-estate but I decided to try the sidebar and so far I'm impressed. I can see a lot I'll be able to use, not least the scratch pad instead of opening up notepad for one-liners. The to-do list is cool too - I know it sounds so simple, but my workload comes from two service desk queues, plus other projects, plus ad-hoc email requests - and I think just jotting down a few tasks to get done today in the morning might help organise things for the day rather than flitting about between tasks all day.
As I said, some simple tools, but helpful, and well organised. As for the desktop search itself, we can now specify network drives to index which is really cool for the dis-organised mess of nested folders that is my corporate drive. Gmail search can't get through my firewall unfortunately. The News search is great, it seems to have figured out my habits from history - I haven't visited any news sites except slashdot since installing and it's already got some new stories from my favourite sites... Plus some seemingly random interesting maps and blogs... no doubt these will cancel out any gains to my productivity made by ease of finding things:)
So all in all, first impression is a good one.
btw, does anyone know a way to create a firefox keyword to search the with this? It seems to need a session id to work, but maybe there's a way round?
// It had been Fat's delusion for years that he could help people. --Philip K. Dick, Valis
I needs my fix already!
Now if google would do something with Natilie Portman.........
It has a couple functions but to call it a desktop is way too early. The question is when will Google stop riding the bear. "Requires Windows XP or Windows 2000 SP 3+".
You would think that they would have put up a screenshot of the sidebar where their stock was up rather than down $4.17.
When are people going to understand that Google is a business just like any other?
Being a business, they must focus on the return over their investment, which is much faster achieved when you develop something for the masses. Last time I checked, the masses were running Windows, not Linux or any other open source OS.
And BTW, they WILL do evil if that makes stocks go up!
More speculation about a GoogleOS....
Google Fanboy: They made an email app, a desktop search bar and an IM client, HOW COULD THEY NOT BE MAKING AN OS????
"A Lisp programmer knows the value of everything, but the cost of nothing." - Alan Perlis
That said, I spend almost all my time on my Mac, so I have Spotlight.
I LOVE Spotlight.
With a quick key combination (based on keyboard placement, it would be like Alt-Space in the windows world) and then just type in stuff. The name of a document. A person's name. The name of an appointment. The name of a bookmark. The name of a folder. Some text in a document that I can't remember the name of. The name of a function in one of my programming projects (then just chose the header file it finds). It is fantastic. I even use it to launch programs (although I would prefer a version of the Run command in Windows, that is the one thing I miss). I know about Quicksilver and such but Spotlight works well enough for this.
It does seem to have gotten faster with the 10.4.3 update as well. Before sometimes I could type something in and it would take 15+ seconds for the first result to show up (this is a 1.677 GHz PB with 1GB of RAM), now the first results are always there in under a second (note, internal hard drive only; I don't know how it'd deal with multiple 800GB volumes some people use).
If you get Google Desktop and start using it, I think you'll love it (note: I've turned off the sidebar, just seems annoying to me). All it needs is a key command (Win-G maybe?) to launch it (note: might exist, haven't looked). While not as convenient as Spotlight (Google Desktop pulls up a web browser then you have to click, with spotlight I can use arrow keys, return, and various key combos), it will still be a major boon to you.
Now I'm a VERY organized person, and I still am. But now I can find that document by typing a few letters, instead of opening a few folders.
And if you accidently save something to the wrong place, it can be a GODSEND in finding it.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
I installed the original Google Desktop Search when it first came out. The application was not bad, it just crashed my computer anytime I left it up overnight. After I narrowed the number of folders it indexed the crashes stopped and I now use it alot. I have found it very useful and am not annoyed by the sliver of screen space it takes up on the right side monitor. It seems the newest version is a little more stable and the new maps plugin is nice since I am a map junkie.
The real neat capability is the ability they give you to write plug-ins now in javascript. I have only been playing around a little so far but it seems like Google is trying to turn Javascript into the new VBA! I was very interested in creating a Google Desktop Plug-in before they added the new Javascript programming capabilties, but I was going to need Visual Studio 2003 and navigate through Visual C++.net. In just playing around the Javascript it seems both simple yet powerful enough to get done what I want. The comparison to VBA is not meant to be a put down. Between the Google Maps API and the Sidebar API for Google Desktop I never though I would be using Javascript so much.
I wish you were right about Google...
... everything.
More and more all my private life is scanned by google.
Google knows everything about me.
Via gmail they know who are my friends, where I work, what I do,
Via google search history they can even gather more informations, they can even guess when I was in front of my computer.
I don't wanna draw a dark picture, but they are gaining more and more access to our private life. What do they do whith all the data they collect ? Targeting advertisement ?
I really hope they have the best intentions and they only do that !
Because If a I were the CIA investigating somebody, google would be the first place to go to retrieve informations.