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Google Takes The Axe To 10 Products [News]

Matt Smith — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 15:06:36 +0000

It seems that Google has a hand in nearly everything, from feed readers to email to smartphones, but there are limits to the company’s patience with the products under its wing. Now Google has announced that a number of under-performers will be given the axe.

Perhaps the most significant (or at least, the only dying service I’ve used for more than a few days) is Google Desktop, which brought gadgets and search directly to the desktop experience. Though a neat trick at the time of its release in 2004, both Windows and Mac OS X now offer similar functionality, making the product redundant. Support will end on September 14th.

Other notable products that will be buried include Aardvark, a question-and-answer site brought under Google’s wing in early 2010, and Fast Flip, a service that tried to digitally replicate the style of a newspaper. While unique, neither were popular, which is no doubt why they’ll soon be gone. Less important causalities include Google Pack, Google Web Security, Google Notebook, Google Maps API for Flash, Sidewiki, Subscribed Links, and Image Labeler.

It’s doubtful any of these services will be greatly missed (queue hostile comments), but their disappearance points to a larger trend within the company. Google has been trying to streamline its product offerings, and has been switching focus to web apps exclusively. That leaves no room for experiments like Aardvark or locally installed software such as Google Desktop.

Farewell, sweet products. Some of us will miss you. Maybe. Will you miss them?

Source: PC Magazine

7 Must-Have Google Desktop Gadgets for Productivity

Matt Smith — Mon, 31 May 2010 16:30:05 +0000

Google Desktop is a great tool for social networking. The Twitter and Facebook gadgets allow you to keep up to date with your friends without even having to launch a full web browser. Other Google Desktop gadgets, like custom clocks and computer performance meters, just flat-out look cool.

But Google Desktop isn’t just a novelty. There are many gadgets available for Google Desktop which can improve your productivity. This guide rounds up the top five productivity-improving gadgets you can find for Google Desktop.

To best way to add these Google Desktop gadgets is to simply to right-click on your Google Desktop sidebar and then click Add Gadgets. Type the name of the gadget in the upper left hand search field to find it. Then hover over the gadget’s icon and select Add. Google Desktop will handle the rest.

Task List and Time Timer

Having a to-do list can be great, but the old-fashioned method of putting it down on paper isn’t always the best. Paper can be easily lost, and you don’t want to have to stuff a list of things to do in your pocket whenever you travel, do you?

There are quite a few to-do list gadgets available, but the best one is the Task List and Time Timer. This list really serves two functions. The first is to keep track of what you have to do today. The second is to keep track of how much time you spend doing it. If you’re someone who is self-employed the timer is an amazing tool, as it keeps you honest about how much time you’re actually spending on work.

Read Feed

News isn’t always a distraction. For many people, it is important to have information as quickly as possible. However, the news gadgets which are provided by many media outlets are very limited in what they can do for you. They’re usually focused on getting you to go to their website rather than presenting news to you clearly.

That is where the Read Feed reader comes in. This simple RSS reader allows you to follow multiple RSS feeds at once. The news is formatted in simple text with basic images and dated, making it easy to read while minimizing its ability to distract you when you’re hard at work.

Gmail Notifier

Adding your Gmail to your Google Desktop can help you answer emails quickly, but displaying your entire Gmail inbox in the Gmail gadget feels a bit clunky. A better, more focused way of responding quickly to emails is to use the Gmail Notifer.

Rather than displaying your entire inbox, the Gmail Notifier only displays unread messages. It displays them in a large, easy to click read format. Your can either read a summary of the email or open Gmail in your default web browser to reply.

Google Calendar

Google Calendar is an amazing tool for all of use who can’t seem to remember meetings, birthdays and other important dates. The Google Calendar gadget goes even further by making it easy to access your Google Calendar information from your desktop.

Any date on which you have something scheduled will be show up in bold text on your Google Calender gadget. You can then click on the date to read a summary of what is scheduled for that day. You can also create a new event from the Google Calender Gadget or double-click on a date to open up Google Calender in your default web browser and display an expanded view of the day’s events.

Google Translate

The ability to connect with others across the globe online means you’ll inevitably come across situations where you want to read something which isn’t in a language you speak. Finding a website which will translate the text for you is one way to go about it, but if you find yourself running into this problem frequently you’ll find it much easier to use Google Translate, a Google Desktop gadget which will translate text for you once you enter it.

Google Translate can translate supports numerous languages. This includes widely known languages, like English, Chinese and Spanish, as well as less well known languages like Cherokee and Icelandic. Simply type in or copy and paste the text you need translated and Google Translate will handle the rest.

Spellchecker

Ever want to know how a word is spelled as quick as you can snap your fingers? Usually you’d have to open Word in such a situation, or you might just type your suspected spelling into Google and see what you end up with, hoping that the Internet steers you true.

With the Spellchecker Gadget, however, you have no reason to doubt. This simple gadget allows you to enter a word. Press Enter and the word is checked for spelling errors and corrected if there are any. You’ll also receive a quick definition below the word.

On-Screen Ruler

If you work with web designs or photographs you’ll often need to measure an image of a size of page element. However, this can be difficult, particularly if importing the item you’re working on into your favorite editor is, for whatever reason, not possible.

The On-Screen Ruler can solve this problem. It is very simply a ruler which appears on your desktop and can measure the size of an image in pixels. By default it is 500 pixels wide, but it can be adjusted to be as wide or as narrow as needed.

How do you use Google Desktop? Any more productivity gadgets you’d like to recommend? Voice them out in the comments.

Locate32 – Lightning Fast Desktop Search Tool for your PC

Varun Kashyap — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 16:26:02 +0000

If you want to search and locate files on your computer fast, and by fast I mean lightning fast, you must try Locate32.

Locate32 is a desktop seach tool that lets you search for files and folders on your hard drive and other locations with lightning speed. It uses databases to store information about directory structures and then utilizes them when you search for something. If this rings a bell and makes you think about Windows Desktop Search or Google Desktop, then you are not far wrong except that Locate32 is a lot faster and lighter.

Locate32 is portable – you just extract the package (zip or exe) and you are ready to go. Since it uses a database to search the files, make sure that you create the first time database before you search for files. This may take a few minutes depending on your storage capacity.

Once the database is ready you can type in your queries and get instant results. Locate32 also offers you a variety of options while searching to streamline your search:

You can specify the name, wildcards, extension or directory to look in :

You can also specify the minimum or the maximum filesize criteria that the file must satisfy or you can specify the age of the file.

If you really require the advanced stuff, head on over to the advanced tab and you can specify whether you want to search the file names, folder names or both. The type of file i.e. archives, sound files, image files, source files, text files, documents, executables or the plain old search by extension.

Last but not least you can also search the text within the files for a particular word or phrase (which is a little time consuming).

Personally the results are so quick that I seldom specify any options. Just put in a substring that you remember to be in the file name, hit enter and boom the results are already there. If however you need a finely grained search than of course Locate32 provides you with all the options.

There are almost endless options for Locate32. I am going to leave it to you to check them out for yourself because there are simply so many of them. They range from search options to Windows menu integration to keyboard shortcuts to database update schedules.

Locate32 is one of those software apps that you must have on your computer. I highly recommend that you check it out and see if it fits your needs.

What software or features do you use for your searching needs? Would you make the switch to the very lightweight Locate32? Or have you been using the default Windows search or Google Desktop? Let us know in the comments.

Google Gadgets To Download For The Fun Of It!

Lee Mathews — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 01:19:19 +0000

Google Desktop has so many excellent ““ and highly useful ““ features. It’s easily my favorite tool for indexing the massive amount of data I keep scattered around the various folders on my computer, and it’s a lot less painful than actually taking the time to sort everything myself.

It really is a tremendous productivity booster and deserves a place on any serious professional’s desktop – if not for the usefulness, then why not for some less-serious, completely fun gadgets!

The Voodoo Doll

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a nice guy. There’s not a mean bone in my entire body. But I do love this gadget, as it served me well during the 2008 Stanley Cup playoffs. I mean, a guy can only tolerate so many bad calls against his team before he needs to slap the referee’s picture on this pixelated pin-cushion and commence with the imaginary pokings.

As far as I know, any results from using the voodoo doll are purely coincidental”¦

aren’t they”¦?

Stress Level Gadget

You’ve got to love any gadget that tells you expressly in its “about” page that it “is just for fun and can decrease the performance of your computer system.” I’m a huge fan of honesty, so I had to give this thing a try. What it does is monitor the level of activity on your computer and display your oh-so-scientifically calculated stress level. Since my own stress indicators are wildly out of whack from years in the IT business, it’s nice to have an applet that can help me out.

I do wish this one could be resized, as it’s a little bit on the small side.

Tetris

Come on now, what computer is complete without a way to play Tetris on it somewhere?

Purists will love the fact that there’s no block preview for the cheaters out there. It’s quite well done, includes catchy music, and is smart enough to pause your game when the Google sidebar loses focus.

That’s kind of ironic, when you think about it “¦

After all, when I lose focus, I pause what I’m doing and head over to my Tetris gadget. Isn’t it odd how things work out like that?

Desktop Yoga

A status bar at the bottom counts down 30 minutes and reminds you at the end to take a moment to stretch, breathe, and relax. It may sound like a (or be, to some of you) goofy idea, but I’m actually starting to really welcome it. It’s a great way to make sure that my stress level gadget won’t reach critical levels.

I was looking for something to complement this one, like a Mindfulness Bell or random sayings from the Tao Te Ching, but sadly found nothing. If you’ve seen one, please tell me in the comments!

The Quest for Truthiness

In the beginning, Colbert crept into the spotlight on The Daily Show. Gradually his popularity rose, until he ended up landing his own show with Comedy Central. Then he brought us Wikiality, and now he’s all over our desktop. I knew this would have to stay on my desktop when the first quote that came up was “Guests of the Colbert Report stay at the luxurious”¦crashing with a friend.”

The gadget automatically queries Wikipedia every four hours to integrate new bits of Truthiness to display in your sidebar ““ just to make sure you’re not missing out on any wildly funny Colbert quotes from the night before.

Cat Clock

If you use a sidebar at all, chances are good that you have a clock on it somewhere. Maybe you’re digital, maybe analog. Me, I’m a cat person. I can’t even remember how many of my grandparents’ friends’ homes I went into and noticed this guy lurking over a doorway. It brings back memories, and it makes me chuckle every now and then when I glance at my monitor. By far the most fun clock I’ve seen!

In case you’re wondering, yes, it is animated.

What would a cat clock gadget be without the wagging tail and eyes that peer back and forth hoping your mouse is the kind it can eat?

PuppetMuppet Noodle Timer

What computing session would be complete without a quick break for some hot, tasty ramen noodles? But how best to multi-task your cooking and computing? With the Noodle Timer, of course!

Simply click the left arrow to increase the number of minutes (or right arrow to decrease) and then press the start button to begin your countdown. The noodle cup on his head even rocks back and forth in time. Like the cat clock, it’s another thing that’s sure to bring a smile to your face when you see it sitting on your sidebar.

Answer Ball

There are times in the day where I’m confronted with a situation and I just don’t know how to handle it. Thank the heavens for my Magic 8-Ball!

This is another one that takes me back to my youth (read: makes me feel like an antique). How many of you had one of those crack and the goo leaks out all over the place? Well, you don’t have to worry about the mess any more ““ just quick answers to all of life’s greatest questions.

Hopefully you’ll get some enjoyment out of these ““ I know I do! I’m sure there are plenty of other great, not-so-practical gadgets available for Google Desktop, so I’m putting out an open call: what are your favorite just-for-fun gadgets? Comment and share the joy!

(By) Lee Mathews is a technician and blogger who writes to share his insights (however skewed) with other slightly frustrated computer users at Unsightful.Com.