Google Desktop

[The Unknown Gomer]

Just installed it today, being careful to not switch on the advanced features in order to protect my privacy thank you very much, and it's still indexing away.

The sidebar seems to have a couple of neat features, although I've pretty much deleted most of what they included and swapped them out for other gadgets that are somewhat more useful to ME.

Anyone else taking it for a test drive?

~ Karen ~

[StevenV]

As a Mac user, I haven't (can't) try it out. Besides, Spotlight already does a great job of indexing and letting me search. :cool:

On the Windows systems I've not yet given it a try, other users' reports I've seen on it just weren't compelling enough to bubble it up ot the top of my priority list. Maybe this next week though. Of course, MS is working on their indexer; Google's desktop is pushing them just as Mozilla/Firefox pushed the IE team.

[The Unknown Gomer]

I left it to finish indexing last night after I went to bed, so it's finished with that this morning. And now that I've moved the sidebar from its default right side over to the left (I kept aiming for the scroll bar in IE and the two were so close, the sidebar kept popping out instead. :mad: So now it's on the left instead), I'm a much happier camper. Especially now that I've got it set to autohide so it stays out of the way while I'm doing other things...

But my current sidebar choices: the hockey gadget, a laundry timer, Google video, the scratch bad, NASA's image of the day, Netflix Quick Access, ebay Auction watch, a Sudoku game, and the standard Google desktop search. And on the desktop, undocked from the toolbar, just a calendar/clock, and the local weather gadget.

We'll see how the computer likes all this funky stuff running in the background. So far so good though. :)

[StevenV]

Karen, like I said I've not really investigated GDesk very much. Are you saying that all those widgets are inside it's sidebar, each free-floating, or seperate apps?

[The Unknown Gomer]

They can be both, either as part of the sidebar (which itself can either be part of the Windows toolbar or free floating or docked to either side), or free floating just out there on the desktop.

Here's a screencap. I unhid the sidebar, and opened the NASA image of the day (which oddly enough hasn't changed since yesterday; if that one doesn't work like it's supposed to, I'll be ditching it...), which is still attached to the sidebar, just open. And the other two gadgets are over there on the right. But I can just as easily re-dock them on the sidebar if I want to.

I think I can actually add shortcuts to my most frequently used programs to the sidebar too, but since I usually have those on my desktop anyway, that seems a little redundant. Although a cleaner desktop would be nice though. :)

But Google has got a whole library of individual little Gadget apps, both created by them or by 3rd parties. I need to go eyeball through the list and see if there are any other handy dandy tools of interest that I might want to snatch up and add to the sidebar...

[The Unknown Gomer]

*bump*

Anyone? Anyone? Buehler?

Am I the only one using the Google Desktop?

[Ringil]

I use Google Desktop. I don't have the side bar on though. I just have my gadgets floating so they don't get in the way. It's pretty good, doesn't take up too much RAM.

[Buttabean]

google is a copy cat. :p I'm attaching pictures of our Spotlight, which is built into the OS. It can find search words in PDF and picture files, besides the usual doc and picture titles. That's cool. :cool:

The second one is of Dashboard, which hides when you're not using it. But you can put up any number of "widgets" up on it to tell you all kinds of stuff. I've got a clock, a pacman game, a Family Guy quote thingie, a hawaiian dancer doll thing that sways back and forth to the music from itunes, sticky notes, a MLK, jr. quote thingie, weather widgets for 3 different towns that are collapsable, dictionary, wikipedia widget, a deal that tells me where the cheapest gas in my area is, etc. Tons of fun. But since they're built into the OS instead of coming from a 3rd party source, they are nicer to your compy when it comes to accuracy in finding things, and the widgets working properly.

[StevenV]

I'm also a Mac person (http://www.thirdday.com/boards/showpost.php?p=1455056&postcount=232) (as well as a Windows user), and love spotlight. I've actually turned Dashboard off, because I didn't find that much use for the widgets/gadgets, but that's just me. I don't like to have a whole lot of "stuff" going in the background, checking for news and that sort of thing. My computers have enough processes running and slowing them down as it is :)

When I want to see news, sports scores, weather or whatever, I go check 'em. I've got shortcuts for all those. Or I fire up my aggregator (http://steven.vorefamily.net/feeds.html) and have it get the stuff that I normally read.

Anyway, I gave Google Desktop a shot today:

http://img514.imageshack.us/img514/1521/gdesktop8vn.jpg

Yea, it's got the same sort of things as OS X's Spotlight and Dashboard combined, but that doesn't bother me. Everyone copies (http://steven.vorefamily.net/2006/06/windows-vista-os-x.html) from everyone else, adds their own twist and hopefully improvements.

[Ringil]

Yahoo has also done a similar thing that they call Widgets. I tried using them, but they're pretty terrible.

[The Unknown Gomer]

I've actually temporarily disabled Google Desktop and am keeping it from starting automatically when Windows starts, until I I have time to find where in the options you can disable that constant archiving of every single webpage I visit.

At least I assume that's why I can hear my computer continuously grinding away everytime I surf with the Desktop running (and why it STOPPED doing that now that I've disabled it.) Don't need that, that's what the history file is for in IE.

I'll check it out this weekend, surely there is a setting to disable that feature someplace, I just haven't looked for it yet.

And for the record, the Google Weather gadget is about as accurate as I am finding their MAPS to be. :rolleyes:

[StevenV]

And for the record, the Google Weather gadget is about as accurate as I am finding their MAPS to be. :rolleyes:

there's only one guy who can predict the weather, and both Morgan Freeman and George Burns are busy :p

[Jason]

I'd really like to add the international clock gadget but I've tried to twice and got an error both times.

[Jason]

I'm using Google Gadgets again as they've added a bunch. I'm using:

Google search
U.S. News
Wikipedia search
World clock (currently showing times for me, Australia, London, and Thailand)
Bible Gateway Verse of the Day
Dictionary
Crossword of the Day
Backgammon

Anyone else using it?

[The Unknown Gomer]

Wow, this thread is making an appearance again after almost a year? Jason, how'd you even remember this was here after all this time? I didn't! :D

Actually, I uninstalled Google Desktop some time ago. When I found myself closing it more often than I had it open, I figured I probably didn't need to keep it installed. So I gave it the boot.

I AM rather fond of the 8Start Launcher (http://www.8start.com/) though, to launch all my frequently used programs, internet shortcuts, and files. Very handy, and free. I like the way it stays completely hidden until you want it, then you just middle click the mouse to pull it up and access whatever programs you've got set up on it.

[Jason]

Wow, this thread is making an appearance again after almost a year? Jason, how'd you even remember this was here after all this time? I didn't! :D


I wanted to start a thread on Google gadgets but I figured I better check if one already existed. So I searched and found this one.