Sidebar and desktop search available as free download
Google Desktop 2 has gone live! The software package contains the Google Sidebar, as well as the desktop technology that lets users search their systems for text documents, email messages and recently visited web pages.
Google unveiled the beta of Desktop 2 in August. This final version of the application adds several new features, according to the search firm. The Google Sidebar offers a number of tools to display information from online and offline sources, including a Gmail account, news websites and locally stored photos. The full version also includes a Google Maps sidebar that finds locations relevant to the web pages and emails currently being viewed and shown in the maps panel.
The product aims to organize not only a user’s web searches but will also index a range of files on the local hard disk including Word and Excel documents as well as stored email messages. It will also include chats via Chats from AOL 7+, AOL Instant Messenger 5+, and MSN Messenger.
It also marks the first steps in Google’s target of becoming a portal by offering personalized weather, share information, customized news and RSS/Atom feeds.
The company is also hoping to attract a thriving community of third party add-ins for Desktop with enhancements to the Google Desktop API which allows developers to create their own sidebars. Among those already available are indexers for various email clients, images and audio files from iTunes.
The beta is available only in English for now, and requires Windows XP or 2000 with Service Pack 3. Google Desktop and Google Desktop for Enterprise are both available free and can be downloaded at http://desktop.google.com and http://desktop.google.com/enterprise/, respectively.