Google Desktop is hitting a milestone today: we’re going cross platform! Google Desktop for the Mac (beta) is now available. We know that whether you use a PC or a Mac, a significant amount of personal content lives on the web and also on your computer. We’re committed to helping you search all of that information.
Like the Windows version, Google Desktop for the Mac makes searching your desktop and the web faster, easier, and more comprehens

James Yum, Support Engineer Sometimes it’s good to share. With that in mind, three of our most popular gadgets have been open sourced under Apache License 2.0 and are now hosted at code.google.com: Moon Phase Ticker for Trekkers Wikipedia Search If you’ve never visited code.google.com project hosting, you’re in for a pleasant surprise. It’s a completely free project-hosting solution that features source control, issue tr

With the dramatically increasing amount of content out there, you need better ways to find relevant information, whether searching your computer or reading the latest headlines in sidebar. How could we improve the way you stay up-to-date with sidebar and gadgets? How could we make it even easier to search files and find that lost book report, web page, or recipe? After many months, we are pleased to release the Google Desktop 5 Beta applic

Today is Valentine’s Day. Traditionally, this day of romance is celebrated with chocolate or flowers, lavish dinners out, or even more lavish dinners in. But what if you’re still looking for that special someone, or you’re miles away from the one you love? Google Desktop to the rescue: Here are a few desktop gadgets you can use to find or celebrate love. Crush
By Lahiru Lakmal Priyadarshana Let a special Google Talk friend know tha

When we published our updated developer doc, we also released a new version of the SDK. Here’s why you should download the latest SDK: New samples! The SDK has lots more sample gadgets, some of which use new features and APIs such as audio, PNG images, new options methods, and new view methods. You’ll also see examples of how to use the Query API and Event API. We’ve even released several production-worthy samples from which more experienced dev

The good folks over at code.google.com have launched a Developer Knowledge Base, where most of the Google developer products are represented, including Google Desktop Gadgets. There’s a series of Getting Started articles, which combined with the improved documentation and new tutorial makes it easier than ever to learn how to create gadgets. And there’s a growing collection of How To’s and Gadget Best Practices that can help elevate your skil

If you’re at all interested in writing desktop gadgets, take a look at Modifying Hello World. It’s the first of several tutorials we plan to offer. Even if you don’t know XML or JavaScript, you can complete this tutorial — it gives you all the code you need. Of course, we hope that you’ll go on to write your own code. To encourage that, the tutorial lists a bunch of ideas for what to do next.
Even if you’re an experienced developer, you mi

Posted by Kevin Tom, Product Manager Happy Holidays! Santa has delivered Google Desktop 4.5 in 27 more languages — and the Japanese version is also coming out of beta. Now everyone can take advantage of new features, including: Transparent Sidebar - The new Sidebar fits seamlessly with your desktop environment. Gadgets look right at home in the Sidebar and content-heavy gadgets are easier to tell apart with new frames and icons. And you

We’ve released some very fun and festive gadgets just in time for the holidays! Try these out: Christmas Tree by EK Chung and James Yum [USA]
A tree that you can decorate. Choose lights, bows, stockings, and ornaments for your tree to add distinctive holiday cheer. Countdown to New Year by Teodor Filimon [Romania]
A winter calendar that shows how much time is left until January 1. This gadget’s main

Take a look at our updated developer documentation — pages aimed at anyone who uses the Google Desktop SDK. Of course, the new doc describes the API changes in our latest release, but we’ve made other changes, too. The top-level and gadget doc has been reorganized, looks more like other Google API doc, and has some new navigational aids such as simplified side links and hierarchical links at the top.
We’re still working on the doc. One of o

Every once in a while, our products go through a change that we just can’t wait to get out to you. That’s the case with Google Desktop 4.5, which introduces a visual refresh of the Sidebar and some Google Gadgets

Niniane Wang talks about what went into creating Google Desktop Search 1, code-named “total recall” at the time.

Funny moments on Google Desktop search.

Google Desktop 3 has serious security flaws reports PCPro.

Research firm Gartner is the latest company to warn organisations of the security risk presented by Google’s Desktop 3. In a report, Gartner concludes that the danger of company confidential data being intercepted outside the corporation’s firewall represented an ‘unacceptable risk’.

Read more here.