Google today released a new version of Google Desktop for Mac, which includes a new feature - Desktop Gadgets - that was previously found on the Windows version only. One difference is that the gadgets on the Mac version will be placed on the Dashboard instead of a separate sidebar in the Windows version.

What’s the use of Google Desktop Gadgets if Mac already have Dashboard widgets, you may ask? Well, my answer is quite simple: the Mac users will have more choices for what to put on their Dashboards (there are currently about 700 Google Gadgets in their Plugins directory).

Since the gadgets are mostly written in XML and JavaScript (and often times CSS), they are cross-platform that can be run on iGoogle, and both Windows and Mac version of Google Desktop, without having the developers to rewrite the gadgets again (there are a few rules to watch out though).

I want to congratulate gSpy’s Keith Chan for winning the Google Gadgets Awards in Hong Kong with his Hong Kong Regional Weather gadget.