Dev Dawn

Google SideBar rox Windows! What the internet should be You get active alerts of what is popular and latest on the web from what you are into - useful AI! Immersive!

I have not got a lot of time but wanted to quickly share my review of the Goggle side bar, also known as GDS - Google Desktop Search. Useful and also cool!

WHY IS IT KILLER?
* Desktop Search - quickly find references on your computer amongst any email/files/web history/chats/other using Goggle’s indexing (far more useful than anything else).
* Plugins - like the winamp plugin explosion anyone can build activeX plug ins to be used by the sidebar.
* Keep up to date and learns - not only does it receive XML RSS feeds (ie new blog entries as they appear) it also has the current news the current hot sites on the web (most popular). If you turn on advanced features (which means GDS starts recording what you do with it - trust Goggle! but note you can turn this off and it is given as an explicit option on install) it will remember what you are interested in and show more of it.
* Integrates - automatically with Thunderbird and indexes all your email from all your accounts!

For most plugins a summary is shown which you can expand to view more - if that is not enough you can expand to the full web site or source of the content.

CRITIQUE
It is actually not as mature as I’d like, Google have kept it lean like GTalk but almost too lean and too kinda unfinished! For instance weather is only for the states, the TODO list has very little functionality, the expanding of photos doesn’t seem to work, photo sources I should be able to turn off/on with a tick box rather than be forced to remove them and then remember to add them back later, and the scratch pad says it saves everything but I don’t see how to review old messages you’ve cleared - there are quire a few of these little niggles. The policy here might be they can wait for users to write new plug ins that are far better (which has already started).

Another issue is you’ll probably need two monitors! The usual way to run GDS is always on top and as a sidebar is takes up some real estate and you are tempted to make it even wider. I have it on my second monitor and allow it to hide behind open windows so that while I’m idle on that monitor I can see my GDS but otherwise I can get on with work. GDS also does use some system resources and network traffic of course.

MY PLUGINS

To save some effort for others here is what I am using currently in my configured GDS, most plugins are simple .MSI microsoft install packages that are small and take 5 seconds to install and appear instantly in the GDS. As usual with plug ins the hard thing is working out the good ones!

* Calendar - minimised to just show time: this needs to be added and while playing CS in the main monitor is essential for keeping track of the time! Also allows primitive day notes.
* Email - expanded to show two most recent emails: comes with default GDS
* News - standard: for your news feeds
* Photos - comes standard (but improved plug ins that allow more image types are available): a slideshow of your photos on your hard drive and web sites you nominate, a nice to have feature.
* What’s Hot - comes standard: the most popular sites on the web right now, tends to update once each day which is cool as it gives you time to check them out. Clicking on it expands to full list of hot sites.
* Todo - comes standard: a bit limited.
* Web Clips - comes standard: XML RSS feeds from blogs and any other sites, quite handy and updates often (distracting!). Get Dev Dawn RSS or comment RSS!
* Quick View - comes standard: remembers your most recently viewed sites for quick look up (not all that useful surprisingly).
* Del.icio.us GDS plug in: This allows quick access to your current del.icio.us bookmarks (online storage of your bookmarks but web shareable and the database advantages that allows - popular tag clouds etc).
* Scratch Pad - comes standard: a quick place to save text in case you might need it later (handy actually but limited functionality).
* Word a Day - added from plugins: pick which-ever RSS wordaday feeds (that are compatible) to see each day. Comes with three RSS sites set up one of which advertises a book, just delete that one.
* System Monitor - not turned on by default, supplied by Google and monitors CPU, Memory, Disk and Network in either a summary or when clicked on shows more which includes physical and virtual memory and in and out network traffic. I have this open and active showing the summary at all times so I know why XP is screwing me at all times!
* GDS - default locked: finally the whole point, the Google Desktop Search bar that allows searching of desktop or web. In fact your desktop search results are now integrated inside Firefox anytime you use Google search anyway for easy access (it does on my personalised Google anyway, see below). Instead of the sidebar you can opt to just have only this search bar floating or in your windows task bar. There is a tray icon to control called Google Desktop to manage all of this.

ALSO OF NOTE…
GDS gdTunes plug in: Manage iTunes within GDS if you are on iTunes that is.
GDS AdSense Monitor plug in: Watch the bling as it comes in!
Gmail Manager: Not part of GDS but if you are like me you have 3 or 4 gmail accounts and this is a great tool to manage them on the web!
Mercora online MP3 DJ broadcasts: uses your gtalk logon - access thousands of peoples MP3 play lists! Radio style system = good but less control over songs and skip forward etc (like Radio), I have tried it.
Del.icio.us firefox plugin: Del.icio.us is only basically useful once you get this so you can add Del.icio.us bookmarks just as you would a normal bookmark. The problem with del.icio.us currently is a garage approach by its designers IMO (del.icio.us is down for emergency maintenance. we’ll be back as soon possible. and features turned off ie Import).
FireFox 1.5 hacks you must have: a WIRED report, I am using about half of these - almost all great. DownloadThemAll with some timeout issues though, Session remember = great, the del.icio.us extension mentioned above, you can control your own custom scripting if you like, Adblock = ok, Nuke Anything Enhanced = great, TabX = terrific!

Yes - get your google on now with Yahoo-like personalised logon!!!! When will it stop ? Firefox, thunderbird, Open Office, Google… all free all good no ads -> pretty sweet huh?

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CodeMonkey (Blog) - Review as of Dec 2005 on Windows XP using ADSL1