Google Sidebar

[Shayne]

http://desktop.google.com/



...if you got room to spare on your desktop, looks like a nice little app.

[Melbosa]

Hmmm Desktop Sidebar hasn't been living up to its name lately, might have to give this one a try.

[Shayne]

THis app would rock if it wasnt a side bar...or at least had the option to "undock" from the side.  I just cant justify the loss of 179,200 pixels



**edit** Edmonton's weather is all @%&#ed up too.  Says its currently 29C. (i think its about 14C though)

[Melbosa]

After trying it, I'm back to Desktop Sidebar.  Google's is still to raw, where as this one is a bit more refined and closer to a complete product.



And yeah I hear ya about realistate.  Prob wouldn't use one if I didn't have dual monitors.

[Darren Dirt]

THis app would rock if it wasnt a side bar...or at least had the option to "undock" from the side.  I just cant justify the loss of 179,200 pixels



**edit** Edmonton's weather is all @%&#ed up too.  Says its currently 29C. (i think its about 14C though)

"Why provide an API for Google Desktop?

There are more than 100,000 applications and 10,000 different file types available for Windows. So that Google Desktop can index this long tail of applications and file types, we've released an SDK that empowers software developers to write simple plug-ins to extend Google Desktop. Similarly, Sidebar can display pretty much anything, which makes it logical to open this API in order to extend Sidebar's abilities as far as possible. The SDK also enables developers to embed Google Desktop into their own applications, bringing fast, convenient search to their users."



Google be smartie pants... They send out an app, call it "Beta", word of mouth gets it spread virally, then they get the users to make it work better!  

[Melbosa]

Google be smartie pants... They send out an app, call it "Beta", word of mouth gets it spread virally, then they get the users to make it work better!  

Reminds of something... what is it again... oh yeah Open Source

[Shayne]

the reason google leaves 90% of their stuff as "beta" is to justify to stock holders that its in "testing" and cannot be "sold".



I also read that it sometimes has to do with that they cannot be sued for some stuff cause they are not making money on it (patent violations or something).



Its actually a decent app.  The more i play the more i like.  Desktop Sidebar is a bloaty chunk of software.  Google's is smaller, lighter, good and easy to use API and it "auto-hides" nicely so its not taking up space (though the other does hide as well).



2 thumbs up!

[Melbosa]

Bloated isn't the word I would use for DSB.  Suite is a better word, like MS Office - comes with a lot of stuff, which the average user only uses 10% of.  There are some things that have been bothering me about it, which made me try Google's when you suggested it today.  But after spending some time on it, and checking out the additions out there, I find that it is still too much in it infancy.



DSB does take a bit of system ram, 11-15MBs, but for me that isn't a  big deal.  I can see on older machines it would be, so all the power to you for using Google.  And I hope they more option for it.  At the moment DSB has all the options I would like to use and a lot more. I can over look the minor annoyances that I am getting in DSB for now, in anticipation of Google's (or some other) coming out with a better version of these products.  But until I find what I need with those, I'll stick with this Suite.

[Shayne]

What killer apps does DSB provide you?



So far ive found value in "System Monitor", "Weather", "RSS Aggregator", "Gmail Inbox" &  "Google News"...all on the google version and on the DSB version.



Id like to see Winamp controls in Google Bar, i think thats really the only thing that DSB would provide me with that id want.



Enlighten me

[Melbosa]

IM Intergration, Outlook Plugin (Exchange), Digital Clock, correct Weather, Panel Grouping.



These are some of the things I found useful at work.  I don't run anything like this at home as I don't need that type of information.



I'm sure Google will get there eventually, and when it does I will switch .  Also didn't like the RSS system as well myself, as DSB has some more options you can use with that.