Long and tech-y
Google is fantastic. Even though its becoming a monopoly, just like Microsoft did, they give stuff for free, so I can live with it. And its not as though there aren't other monopolies around these days, the iPod comes to mind (80% of all mp3 players are iPods).
Anyway, thats not the point. If you *really* aren't interested in getting the Google Desktop Sidebar, then don't read on. However, you might like it.
First things first, it only takes up 4mb of memory, which for something that is constantly connecting to about 8 different things, is fantastic. For you non-geeks out there, thats probably around 2% max. of your computer's memory, so you won't feel any effects of it.
Anyway, the whole reason I'm doing this advertising is the fact that it comes bundled with on-the-fly GMail (GMail wins over hotmail), Search bar for searching the web, your documents, e-mails, just about everything, you also get instant news stories, weather and a nice little rotating map of a random place on Earth.
[PIC] It looks cool.
The desktop search is in play.
What I love about GDS is the fact that it interlinks people's searches from Google. Since literally everyone uses Google these days, it knows exactly where things are going down. The "What's hot" section gives you up-to-the-minute links to the most popular links on the web, which is really useful if you're bored as f**k.
"Web clips" gives you another up-to-the-minute set of links, to RSS feeds. RSS feeds are basically documents that websites publish when a new article is posted, for example this article will appear on my RSS feed once its posted. This will then (only because I've added it to my options) appear in my sidebar. Not useful for viewing my own posts, but useful for seeing when my friends have updated theirs. It also has the option to track which websites you visit. If you visit a website with a working RSS feed enough times, it automatically adds that feed to "Web clips" so you don't have to keep checking sites.
[PIC] Check it.
Unlike some desktop sidebars, this one can minimize to a regular taskbar if you ever want to view something full screen.
Of course, it has more things, and more 3rd party panels for it will soon start to pop up. Not many things integrate so well, but Google have made things a lot easier.
Anyway, thats not the point. If you *really* aren't interested in getting the Google Desktop Sidebar, then don't read on. However, you might like it.
First things first, it only takes up 4mb of memory, which for something that is constantly connecting to about 8 different things, is fantastic. For you non-geeks out there, thats probably around 2% max. of your computer's memory, so you won't feel any effects of it.
Anyway, the whole reason I'm doing this advertising is the fact that it comes bundled with on-the-fly GMail (GMail wins over hotmail), Search bar for searching the web, your documents, e-mails, just about everything, you also get instant news stories, weather and a nice little rotating map of a random place on Earth.
[PIC] It looks cool.
![[PIC] It looks cool](http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/8532/toolbaroverall6zq.jpg){kind=link}
The desktop search is in play.
What I love about GDS is the fact that it interlinks people's searches from Google. Since literally everyone uses Google these days, it knows exactly where things are going down. The "What's hot" section gives you up-to-the-minute links to the most popular links on the web, which is really useful if you're bored as f**k.
"Web clips" gives you another up-to-the-minute set of links, to RSS feeds. RSS feeds are basically documents that websites publish when a new article is posted, for example this article will appear on my RSS feed once its posted. This will then (only because I've added it to my options) appear in my sidebar. Not useful for viewing my own posts, but useful for seeing when my friends have updated theirs. It also has the option to track which websites you visit. If you visit a website with a working RSS feed enough times, it automatically adds that feed to "Web clips" so you don't have to keep checking sites.
[PIC] Check it.
![[PIC] Check it](http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/6544/webclips4zd.jpg){kind=link}
Unlike some desktop sidebars, this one can minimize to a regular taskbar if you ever want to view something full screen.
Of course, it has more things, and more 3rd party panels for it will soon start to pop up. Not many things integrate so well, but Google have made things a lot easier.