Happy New Year!

Posted by Mihai Ionescu, Software Engineer

The Google Desktop Team would like to wish all our users and developers a very happy and prosperous New Year. See you in 2006!

Handy plug-ins for everyday use

Posted by Mihai Ionescu, Software Engineer

Having fun with plug-ins lately? Our developers sure do!

Several of the Google Desktop plug-ins we have received combine a
geeky sense of humor with helpful information. Here are some of our
favorites:

• Laundry Timer - Helps you remember when your laundry is done.


• Global Surfari Notifier - Beach wave & wind information for surf trips.


• Lottery Results - Lottery results for your state.


• Blood Pressure Tracker - Displays blood pressure measurements.


• Today's Deity - Displays "Today's Deity" from the Encyclopedia Mythica.


• Hard Disk Life - Displays a disk health indicator and alerts you about
  problems before they happen.

If you have a cool idea for a plugin, have some fun implementing it yourself or discuss it on the Google Desktop Developer group.

Desktop goes international

Posted by Mihai Ionescu, Software Engineer

About a month ago we released the English out-of-beta version of Google Desktop. Since then we have been working on providing the latest features and enhancements to our non-English language users as well.

Today we're pleased to announce the out-of-beta release of Google Desktop in 16 languages, including Chinese (simplified), Chinese (traditional), Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese/Brazilian, Russian, Spanish, and Swedish.

In addition to stability and performance improvements, this release introduces exciting new features such as an international Weather panel, a Google Maps panel and support for script plug-ins.

More plug-ins...

Posted by Mihai Ionescu, Software Engineer

Thanks to our dedicated developers, new Google desktop plugins are available for download:

• Del.icio.us Bookmarks plug-in - View your del.icio.us bookmarks in the Google Sidebar.


• JobSearch plug-in - Search jobs on thousands of job sites, newspapers and company websites. Receive new jobs as they are added.


• Horoscope plug-in (updated version) - Read your daily horoscope.


• Logitechio2 plug-in - Index and find all handwritten notes taken with the Logitech io2 Personal Digital Pen.


• Google Earth plug-in (updated version) - Index and find Google Earth files on your computer.

Plug-in Checkup

Posted by Niranjan Tulpule, QA Engineer

You had a great idea for a plugin which you have already developed. But if you're wondering how to test it before you submit it to us, wonder no more. Here are some tips:

• Your plugin should do what it says it does.


• Make sure that it doesn't crash Google Desktop -- or another plug-in.


• Make sure that it's easy to uninstall.


• If your target audience is global, test to see if your plugin works well in languages other than English.


• Make sure it doesn't hog resources like the processor, memory and network. We recommend that you use asynchronous calls to receive data so that your network activity does not block the sidebar and other plugins.


• If it connects to the Internet, test it without a valid connection to make sure it works well in offline mode.


• Have good online documentation about its installation and use (it will help us test it before publishing).


• In addition to submitting the plugin, plan to post it in the Google Desktop and Google Desktop Developer groups so that a variety of users will try it out and point out potential issues.

We are always eager to hear from you and see lots of cool plugins for Google Desktop.

Plug-in of the Week: Movies

Posted by Mihai Ionescu, Software Engineer

Fridays are for movies...

Now the Sidebar Movies plug-in makes it easier for you to find out which movies are playing in your neighborhood. Showtimes, reviews, and movie theater information are now just one click away. Give it a try!


The Movies plug-in group or the Google Desktop Developer group are good places to submit feedback and suggest further plug-in improvements.

Trick of the Day: Plug-in Fine-Tuning

Posted by Mihai Ionescu, Software Engineer

For our developers here's a neat trick to help you easily develop, test and fine-tune a Sidebar script plug-in without the need to repeatedly install the plug-in after each modification.

1. Create the installer for your plug-in and install it once. The plug-in is installed in the Program Files directory under Google Desktop Search\Plugins\YourPluginName. Once installed you can modify the plug-in script sources directly.

2. To test changes after modifying the script sources use the "Add/Remove Panels" menu option to unload the old plug-in and load in the new version.

3. Once you are satisfied with the results transfer the modified files back to your original code base and use the plug-in installer to create the final plug-in package.

Tip of the Day: Email Filtering

Posted by Mihai Ionescu, Software Engineer

To prevent specific incoming email messages to appear in your Sidebar Email panel, you can create an email filter.

For example, let's say you are using Google Desktop to index both your personal and business email accounts, but do not want your personal email displayed in the Sidebar. Adding a filter with the "To:" field set to your personal email address will instruct the Email panel to skip showing any email messages sent to your personal email account.

Thank You!

Posted by Mihai Ionescu, Software Engineer

In the US, we're preparing to celebrate Thanksgiving. It's the perfect time to say thanks to our users and developers from all over the world. Your continued feedback, support and contributions have helped us grow and improve considerably.

Thanks for being part of the Google Desktop family!

Life of a Plug-in

Posted by Mihai Ionescu, Software Engineer

A big thanks to everyone who submitted Sidebar plug-ins. Now to answer some of the most frequently asked questions regarding what we think are best practices in plug-in development.

There are several stages involved in designing a Sidebar plug-in, submitting it to Google and getting it listed on the Plug-ins page. So once you've got a great idea for a cool plug-in and you've decided to try your programming talents, we recommend these steps:

1. Read the Script Plug-ins documentation and the Plug-in Installer guide.


2. Download the Google Desktop SDK and experiment with the provided script plug-in samples.


3. Follow the recommendations in the Plug-in UI Guidelines and Plug-in Development & Testing Guidelines.


4. Design and implement your plug-in in JavaScript or VBScript.


5. Package your plug-in using the Plug-in Installer.


6. Test and debug your plug-in.


7. Repeat from step 4 until everything works as expected.


8. Now your plug-in is ready for prime-time.

The next big event in the life of your plug-in is submitting it. After we make sure the plug-in follows the required guidelines we will list it on the Google Desktop Plug-ins page.

When your plug-in has reached a wide audience, don't forget to respond to user reports and requests by fixing any bugs and improving the plug-in's usefulness. And let us know of any major updates you make, of course.

Hello Sidebar!

Posted by Mihai Ionescu, Software Engineer

A "hello world" program is used in many introductory programming tutorials, so we thought we would follow the tradition and show everyone how easy it is to write a "hello world" plug-in for Google Desktop.

So let's get started:

  pluginHelper.title = "Hello World!";


We're done! We just created the simplest Sidebar panel welcoming you to the world of programming for Google Desktop.

Of course we can make the plug-in more interesting. Let's add "Hello World!" greetings in various languages. It is very easy to add items to a panel and provide descriptions for each item.

  var item = new ContentItem();
  item.heading = "Bonjour Monde!";
  item.snippet = "Hello World! translated in French...";
  pluginHelper.AddContentItem(item, gddItemDisplayInSidebar);



You can find more detailed examples and documentation online or by downloading the Google Desktop SDK. The Google Desktop Developer group is also a good source of information.

Once your program is ready, use the plug-in installer tool provided in the SDK to generate a plug-in package ready for deployment.

More than just search

Posted by Mihai Ionescu, Software Engineer

Today's the day that Google Desktop 2 comes out of beta, and that means you'll see some significant improvements -- like new sidebar panels, more plug-in development options, and better support for enterprise installations.

If you like maps on Google Local, we think you'll like the new Personalized Maps panel. As you browse the web, this panel will display maps information related to the pages you're visiting, it can show you interesting places around the world, or you can directly navigate to your favorite spots. Our sidebar panels collection is growing all the time. Try the most popular panels and watch this space for even more additions.

Meanwhile, if you're a sidebar plug-in developer, good news: we've heard you. And we've added support for script plug-ins. We even provided you with an automatic plug-in installer. Just use your favorite scripting language (such as JavaScript or VBScript) and start implementing and deploying cool plug-ins faster than ever. Check out the plug-in samples, the Developer Guide and other exciting sidebar plug-ins that our developer community has published.

Finally, it's now easier to use Google Desktop at home and at work: we've tested the Enterprise version in a number of medium and large businesses to verify the administration, integration and security features that are important within business environments.

As always we value your feedback and would love to get your suggestions for improvement.

Desktop starts blogging

Posted by Mihai Ionescu, Software Engineer

We're proud to announce the launch of Inside Google Desktop Blog here at googledesktop.blogspot.com.

We'll be using this blog as an easy way to make announcements and share all kinds of information - including developer tips, in-depth feature descriptions, user feedback, and ideas on how to get more out of Google Desktop. We hope you'll find it useful and entertaining.

The latest version of Google Desktop is always available at desktop.google.com. Developers can find more information about the Google Desktop SDK at desktop.google.com/developer.html.

If you have any comments and suggestions, please contact us.