Today’s release of Google Desktop 2 is a watershed event for Google, and a momentous shot across Microsoft’s bow (in the desktop ownership arena) and Yahoo!’s bow (in the content aggregation arena). With good reason, much attention is being paid to the Sidebar feature, which has little to do with desktop search, and everything to do with desktop content. No doubt the prominence and importance of the Sidebar is why Google changed the product name from Google Desktop Search to Google Desktop.

As far as searching is concerned, the mechanics are pretty much the same. Google integrates fard drive search with Web search, both in the window that opens in response to double-clicking the Google Desktop icon, and on the google.com page when the user is signed in. A deskbar and a floating deskbar are optionally bundled for remote searching. Initial indexing transpires during idle computer time, then continual indexing proceeds in real time. The same range of filetypes are indexed. The search application does not preview items with the slickness of Yahoo! Desktop Search, but graphic files and cached Web pages are displayed as thumbnails; this is more than Google does with its network-cached Web pages in the main index.

As a massive, multifaceted new feature, the Sidebar is the main focus of this review, continued after the jump.

The Google Desktop Sidebar is a long vertical panel divided into resizable and variously configurable modules. The default modules are:

• Email
• News
• Web Clips (feeds)
• Scratch Pad
• Photos
• Quick View
• What’s Hot
• Stocks
• Weather

The Sidebar is arguably useful than Google’s home page personalization, but there is room for improvement. (I should emphasize that Google Desktop 2 is a beta product.) An article in the NY Times quotes a Google spokesperson saying that third-party development of the Sidebar is anticipated.

Firefox users rejoice: Sidebar links respect and acquiesce to Firefox tabbing preferences. In my case that means that every click opens a new tab, preserving already opened tab content.

The Sidebar is an aggressive space hog. It doesn’t just remain on top of other windows. It is more aggressive even than the Windows desktop. Sidebar prevents other windows from miximizing across the entire screen; you must minimize the Sidebar to see a full-screen window. When the Sidebar is up, any other window dragged over to it slides beneath. This paragraph is true only when Auto-hide is not engaged. Thanks to Moyzes for pointing that out.

Email
The Email module displays received email headers, any one of which slides out sideways from the Sidebar jto reveal the entire message when clicked. The Sidebar found my Thunderbird installation without any action on my part, and added my Gmail archives upon request. Unfortunately, Google Desktop will not index multiple Gmail accounts. Google is probably rather against multiple accounts, but anecdotal evidence indicates they are rampant; certainly this household has multiples.

News
Google Desktop will track your movements through the Web and use the accumulated data to contextually deliver articles supposedly of interest. It is definitely not working well for me yet, but has been running for only half a day. The documentation does not indicate that Google uses any accumulated search history built up; this is because Google Desktop is not locked into a single Google account. But, since it knows my Gmail address, the account name of which has substantial search history built up, I’d like an option to use that history in determining news items in the Sidebar. Anyway, you must agree to Advanced Features in order to receive personalized news items. Clicking any item in the News module extends a panel showing all news items (there are dozens); clicking any item extends yet another panel with a story summary; clicking that link brings up the Web page.

Web Clips
Web Clips are RSS/Atom feeds. Google starts you off with some defaults, which are easily removed. Paste any feed address to receive it. the Sidebar also keeps track of recently viewed pages containing feed links, ad offers to add all the feeds with one click. From there, you can delete unwanted ones. As with News, clicking on a Web Clip item extends a summary; clicking on that header brings up the feed item’s Web page. As an overwhelmed feed user who employs two content-stuffed newsreaders all day, I though this little module would be useless. But I’m already finding it handy to keep track of important feeds I tend to forget, or timely feeds whose additions I want to know about immediately.

I love it. Love scratch pads in general. I wish this one could be detached to floating status. The Sidebar automatically remembers anything you type into it; for better organization you can save any pad-in-progress as a text file (default location is the desktop). I used the Scratch Pad to compile notes for this review.

Photos
The Photos module can be assigned any hard drive folder containing images; likewise any online repository of images. A slideshow proceeds in the module with the pace determined by the user. Click on any image to see an extended, larger version. Double-click that image to open your default image software for that filetype.

Quick View
This module keeps track of your movements—both online and in your hard drive—and maintains a list of recently viewed items. It’s a combination auto-bookmark list and Recent Documents list. Activate the star next to any item you want to persist atop the list. You can weight the list toward recent items or frequently used items.

What’s Hot
The most trivial module in my opinion, What’s Hot scans Technorati, del.icio.us, and NY Times Most Frequently Mailed list, and other sources to determine what people are talking about. My experience so far is that the list doesn’t refresh often enough and has no personalization associated with it. There are no options available in this module.

Stocks
Fairly typical for a stock widget, except for the annoying inability to accept groups of additions; you must add ticker symbols one at a time. The double extension system, as in other modules, eventually reveals a chart and basic session data. Clicking the final header displays the Yahoo! Finance page for that symbol.

Weather
The Weather module displays a current-day forecast, and in my testing accepted only two locations—a seemingly nonsensical limitation. Clicking through the extensions lands you on a Google search page for weather your town, instead of weather: your town. The missing colon turns weather from an operator to a mere keyword, and makes the results useless. It’s an unfortunaste glitch.

SUMMARY:
The Sidebar is a galvanizing addition to Google Desktop; it’s a robust, attractive, ambitious product that has got to rattle Microsoft as it lurches through its ponderous development cycles. I wish I could maximize windows over the Sidebar; Google is being arrogant and pushy here. But I have not shut it off, and I don’t intend to soon. There is real convenience to be had, and Google Desktop now offers a completely new dimension. It’s not all about search anymore. Google Desktop 2, with the Sidebar, is about organizing and making useful—the original Google mandate. With imrovements presumably to come, this is a winner.

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