Google Sidebar Desktop Search

Google has rethought their desktop search tool and attempted to create an all-around useful tool, called Google Sidebar.

The new Sidebar integrates a RSS reader, new mail notifier (works with Gmail and Outlook), custom weather, custom news headlines, custom stocks, image search, and Quick view - a list of frequently viewed documents and files, and, perhaps, the handiest feature - a little scratch pad to jot down notes - how many times have I opened notepad from the command line to do just that? - all presented in "skyscraper" format. In addition, Google has put out an API kit that will enable developers to create their own plug-in modules that can be added to Sidebar.

All in all, the new Sidebar desktop search tool looks pretty good. I am going to have to pass though - I had an issue with Google's desktop search tool permanently archiving all my old spam emails, which made my email search useless - and was the primary reason for using desktop search. Google didn't have a way to undo it - even the Google reps at Pubcon were stumped. Also there were some issues with CPU consumption - the Google desktop search put my laptop into overdrive during idle times.

I finally had to switch over to MSN's Search Tool, which allowed me to remove the spam email folder from being indexed, and seems to be a little gentler on my laptop's CPU.

If you haven't tried installing desktop search yet, I would highly recommend it - it's amazing how much more productive it makes me. For now, I am going to stick with the MSN product - even with all the new features, I just don't see the need to switch.