Tech Tuesday: Google Desktop

DISCLAMER: I'm sorry about the grammatical errors and overuse of the word "ton", but I was trying to get this out posthaste (get it...posthaste... *sign*)

Google has a ton of applications that are available to the public for free.  Some are pretty well know such as G-Mail, Blogger, Picasa, and Talk.  There are also several applications available that are less known. 

Google came on the scene as a search engine and they have not forgotten their roots.  They have expanded their typical search (that includes webpages, images, videos, News, and shopping) with some very specific searches.

• Blog Search - http://www.google.com/blogsearch?hl=en
• Book Search - http://www.google.com/blogsearch?hl=en
  
• Patent Search - http://www.google.com/patents?hl=en
• Scholar Search - http://scholar.google.com/schhp?hl=en

There are a ton of products, but one of my favorite is Google Desktop.  One of the few features I like about Vista is the Sidebar (If you're unfamiliar, don't worry).  Google Desktop is a sort of combo application.  The first part is that it indexes your entire computer (using the file types that you specify) and makes them instantly searchable through a dynamic search bar.  No more having to use the Windows "Find..." command and wait for the little dog to dig up the file you're looking for.  

The second part of the application is the Sidebar/Deskbar.  It basically is panel full of widgets that docks to the side of your screen.  Any widget you can add to your iGoogle homepage can also be added to the sidebar.  On mine I have my XBox Gamercard, a clock, the weather, a picasa photo slideshow, scratch pad (notepad for scratching quick notes), RSS Reader, and email.  

The search feature alone will save a ton of time, it not only searches filenames, but also the files themselves.  So if you remember you wrote a paper in college about Gene Simmons winning the 2012 presidential election but can't remember where you put it, just type in Gene Simmons.

To see more applications available from google go to: http://www.google.com/intl/en/options/

Also check out the Google Labs, which are products that are still being developed, but available to try (http://labs.google.com/)