The Google Desktop blog announced today the latest beta release for Google Desktop. The main benefits appear to be aimed at better searching via a preview feature and more focus on security.
The most noticeable difference to me, however, is that the sidebar is far more aesthetically pleasing.
The sidebar has a completely new look and feel. It samples the color of your wallpaper and fades in the sampled color so that it fits seamlessly onto your desktop. Some of our gadgets have been redesigned so that they are easy to tell apart, easy to read, and easy on the eyes. More differentiated gadgets allow for faster scanning of information through the sidebar. And we’ve created a new dialog for adding gadgets so it’s easier and faster than ever to find the right gadgets for you.
I’m going to run it at home for a few days and try to gauge memory/resource usage. Right now as it is indexing memory usage is not pretty… but the side bar is and what can I say? I’m a sucker for pretty!
One thing that interests me (and has probably been around for a while) is this option labeled, “Access my gadget content and settings like To Do lists, Scratch Pad notes, favorite stocks, and more from any computer“. You know, that seems kind of useful and not to be confused with the “Search Across Computers” feature that gets security folks all quivery. The Help page for it is rather informative too.
This feature does just what it says, keeps your gadget stuff in sync. So if I add To Do stuff and notes here at home, I’ll see them at work and vice-versa. Does it replace a dedicated “GTD” type solution? Not really, the note and To Do modules are both very light weight. But as a quick place to jot something down, it could be useful.
Now to wait for a good GTD post on this thing and how to adapt it. I’ll bet you that someone will write one! Or already has?
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March 6th, 2007 
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[...] I last dabbled with Google Desktop. I think the last time I installed it was March of ‘07 when version 5 beta came out. It’s a neat idea, but just not something that ever “sticks” with my day to day [...]