Googlified

Google just released a Google Desktop for the 6th time (If you count v 4.5). Like every other releases, there were improvements in both; functionality and design. Let’s take a look at it:

Functionality

There is a preview (plus box) for your files if you search them through Google Desktop. That means that you can look into your docs, text and web files etc. very quickly to check if it’s the one you searched for. This might save you a fair amount of time.

They also added a security feature to Google Desktop, which checks whether a link you clicked is malicious or not. In case Google Desktop thinks that a page a security risk, it will warn you. I haven’t seen it yet, but additional security is always a good thing.

Design

The sidebar got a black design which very well fits Windows Vista. Also some gadgets like weather, scratch pad, news, web clips and photos got a new look.
On top of this, the “Add Gadgets” menu got also the black looks and is a lot cleaner faster (it used to be slow, now it updates nearly real time).

Besides the black style, the sidebar got more transparent and blends with your wallpaper. Here is a screen shot of a desktop with…

1. No Google Desktop
2. Google Desktop (blends colors)
3. Google Desktop with a maximized window (then it turns black, but the wallpaper is still slightly visible)

With this latest release of Google Desktop, it’s nearly not recognizable anymore from the first version. It started out with neither gadgets nor sidebar and changed the looks many times. Now it has the best design ever so far and you can either use search, the gadgets with or without the sidebar or all of it together.

While a desktop search for WinXP is (in my opinion) nearly a must-have, also Vista users might want to rethink which version they are using.
With Google Desktop moving at such a fast pace of new releases and steady improvement, it might be even worth to replace Vista’s native sidebar and search functionality with Google’s. I wonder whether Vista sidebar will improve or it will just stay like this until a new windows comes out, but one thing is for sure; Google won’t stop releasing new ones. And with this release they are clearly aiming at both, XP and Vista users.

The Official Google Announcements can be found here and here.