Google Desktop 2.0: a first look

ZDNet Editors CNET

Published: 07 Sep 2005

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The speedy, dynamic Google Desktop 2.0 (beta) makes it clear that Google is out for nothing less than dominion over your desktop. The test edition of this new tool expands upon Google Desktop Search, with live, as-you-type searching (à la Apple's Spotlight) and the eye-catching Sidebar, a clever combination of 1997-era PointCast channels and Apple's new Dashboard that delivers news, information and tools to your fingertips.

	The Google Sidebar adds nine portals to the left or right of your desktop so that you can see your email messages, up-to-the-minute news, photos and more.

The visible core of this program is the Sidebar, a column of stackable modules that docks to the left or right side of your screen. You can set the Sidebar to autohide or minimise, making it unobtrusive for those short on desktop space.

The nine standard modules include Email, a running list of messages in your Gmail or Outlook inbox; News, with feeds of the latest Google News stories; Web Clips to show recent RSS/Atom articles; and What's Hot, a collection of Google's most popular links. The Scratch Pad lets you take notes and saves them automatically, while the Photos portal flips through a mini slide show of images from your local drive, as well as from Web sites you've visited. The Quick View module displays a list of frequently used files, applications, Web sites or other items. You also get updated ticker symbols and indices within the Stocks box, with a section for weather conditions and forecasts beneath it.

Using Google Desktop 2.0 is like having a window to the world sitting on your desktop, and once we had it installed, we were hooked. We look forward to seeing new Sidebar modules from third-party developers -- five are available as of our review date.

The new Quick Find feature, a small search box that cranks out instant search results as you type, works almost exactly like Spotlight in Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. Google Desktop 2.0 is faster and more comprehensive, although we wish we could group the results by type. We like the fact that you can open items straight from the Quick Find results list without first stopping at a search page in your browser.

Other new features include better Outlook integration with searching and the ability to index your Gmail account, your MSN Messenger chats and your files on other network devices. You also get the option to encrypt the entire search index.

Although we love the overall concept of the Sidebar, this beta version could use a few key refinements and bug fixes. First off, you can't manually customise the headlines in the News module; instead, Google Desktop 2.0 bases its news picks on the headlines you click. It's a nice trick (if dicey from a privacy standpoint), but we'd rather just tweak those preferences ourselves. The Email modules can be slow to update (those who need instant message notifications should stick with Gmail Notifier), and you can't compose, reply to or delete messages using the Sidebar. We were mystified by some of the items that ended up in Quick View, and some of the documents we starred -- supposedly to keep them at the top of the list -- disappeared after a day or so. The Photos module tends to get stuck on a handful of images, making for monotonous viewing. And while the integrated Google Desktop Search in Outlook is an improvement, you don't get live results as you type. Google is likely to keep building on this desktop utility.

We wouldn't be surprised if future modules for the Sidebar included a true Gmail desktop client, a Google Talk buddy list, saved searches and Web page archiving; the sky's the limit. Meanwhile, Google has neatly leapfrogged Windows Vista's much-touted searching capabilities with Quick Find's lightning-fast, as-you-type search results. Stay tuned for a full review once the final version of Google Desktop 2.0 becomes available.

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