Going international

Posted by Roy Ju, Software Engineer

Have you been waiting to use Google Desktop 3 in something other than English? Your wait is over, at least in these 15 languages: French, Italian, German, Spanish, Dutch, Brazilian Portuguese, traditional Chinese, simplified Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Swedish, Finnish, Danish, and Norwegian.

Among other new features, Floating Sidebar panels enable you to drag your favorite panels wherever you like on your desktop. And although Google Talk is not yet available in these languages, you�ll still be able to easily email News, Web Clips, and more to a friend right from the Sidebar. If you have multiple computers, you can visit the preferences page to enable Search Across Computers, an advanced feature designed for seamless searches of your documents and web history from any of your computers. But wait! There�s more: the Quick Search Box, available to English-language users for just a short time, is also included. It�s a conveniently located place to search the web as well as your local computer.

The enterprise version launches today too, and comes with Group Policy templates and documentation for centrally administering these features on both the consumer and enterprise versions.

Whichever one you use, may your searches be swift across the globe.

Take 'ctrl' of your Desktop

Posted by Kan Liu, Product Manager

In the new version of Google Desktop 3 (which is coming out of beta today), we�ve fixed a few things from the beta, and we�re also introducing a new element that makes it more convenient to find what you're looking for by enabling you to search the web as well as your local computer, or email, as you type. We call it the Quick Search Box.



It appears in the middle of your screen when you press the Ctrl button twice. When you don't need it, the Quick Search Box automatically hides or sits on your desktop, whichever you prefer. Try it out and send us your suggestions and comments.

Google Desktop 3 for Enterprise

Posted by Mihai Ionescu, Software Engineer

We've recently released a new Enterprise version of Google Desktop 3 giving adminstrators full control over what features to restrict and how documents are retained. To learn more visit the blog entry from our friends on the Enterprise team.

It's Raining Plug-ins

Posted by Mihai Ionescu, Software Engineer

Yesterday we released 10 new Google Desktop plug-ins. Kudos to all the
developers.

• Magnifier by Catalin Patulea - Magnifies the active area of your screen


• WorldTimes by Neil Selkirk - Displays the current homepage details from WhatsTimeWorth.com and World Times for 457 different locations


• CurrencyQuotes by Joe Force - Displays currency quotes with directional indicators


• AuctionWatch by Ty Kroll - Tracks multiple eBay auctions


• SessionControl by Joel Costa - Control your Windows Session tasks


• MM-Memo by Tennetiss - Shows your MM/Memo social bookmarks


• VerseOfTheDay by Adam Faulkner - Displays a daily Bible verse


• IntegrateIE by Bas Rokers - Integrates Google Desktop into IE 7


• 3DTicTacToe by Catalin-Alexandru Avram - What is says


• NBA Scoreboard by Google - Shows live scores and stats for NBA games
  

New version, new plug-ins, new samples

Posted by Mihai Ionescu, Software Engineer

With the release of Google Desktop 3 Beta, our plug-in collection grew a little larger:

• MSN Messenger Sidebar Plug-in by Otron - Get quick access to your Messenger contacts.


• eBay Watcher by Google - Never miss an eBay auction.


• Tic Tac Toe by Google - Play a game of Tic Tac Toe against the computer or a friend.


• GoogleVideo Indexer by Google - Index and search Google Video .GVI files


• ResearchAccelerator by Michael S. Scherotter - Integrate Google Desktop results into Mind Manager.


• Tarchiver by Jonathan Speiser - Index the file names contained within TAR files.


• IPS Website Counter by Michel Blanc - Monitor the traffic of multiple websites.

Additionally the SDK contains new and updated sample code to assist plug-in developers in using the latest APIs:

• GoogleVideo indexing sample


• Query API sample


• ImFeelingLucky Event API sample


• TicTacToe Communication API sample

Desktop Reloaded

Posted by Mihai Ionescu, Software Engineer

Today we're very pleased to announce the launch of Google Desktop 3 Beta. The new version comes loaded with features that make finding and sharing information even easier and more fun than before.

As a Sidebar user, you can now customize and view personalized information anywhere on the the desktop by clicking and dragging your favorite panels wherever you like. Furthermore, you can now easily share information from your Sidebar panels with your contacts by sending it to them through email, chat or directly to their Sidebar. As an added bonus you and your contacts can also play online games through the Sidebar.

We also provided the means to access your data no matter where it resides. The Search Across Computers feature makes it seamless to search the content of your documents and web history from any of your computers.

For developers we have packed the Google Desktop SDK with new APIs and tools to enable the development of applications that leverage the product's new indexing, display and communication capabilities. These include a Query API, a Communication API, improved Script API support, plug-in logging support, and new code samples.

Other new features include the addition of a Search Lock, an advanced search form, spelling suggestions, zip file indexing, and an improved preferences page.

As always we would love to hear your comments, suggestions, opinions, and testimonials.

New Plug-ins on the Block

Posted by Mihai Ionescu, Software Engineer

Our developers have been coming up with some innovative ideas to use the Sidebar to simplify familiar tasks. Below are some new plug-ins we found very useful:

• Task Tracker by Matthew Cowgur - Track time spent for tasks that you are working on.


• NetStat by Catalin Patulea - Monitor your computer's network connections in real time.


• QuickLaunch by Benjamin Schirmer - Get quick and easy access to your files and folders (updated version).


• IeCalendar by Peter Sitterly - Stay up-to-date with information stored in your online IeCalendar account.


• PrintButler by Jon Speiser - Display installed printers and easily change the default printer.


• gdShutdown by Yannick Stucki - Easily control your computer sign-off options.

The developers of these plug-ins are welcoming any feedback or improvement suggestions. Good places to discuss the plug-in are the Google Desktop Developer group or the individual plug-in groups.