Software Update: Google Desktop 2.0

Google Desktop indexes the text of documents, web pages and emails and the meta tags of music files and allows the user to search through all that data. For file types not supported by default, plugins are written using the Google Desktop SDK. Google’s developers have released version 2.0 of Google Desktop which includes the Sidebar will be added. This allows you to retrieve information from the Internet such as new e-mail, weather, stock and news reports, but also RSS and Atom feeds. The following announcement can be found on Google’s blog:

We always get a bit misty-eyed when a youngster graduates, so today we’re dabbing back a few tears for Google Desktop, which leaves beta status behind with several powerful new features under its belt.

Fans of Google Maps will want to check out Sidebar’s new maps panel, which lets you do all the usual cool maps stuff — local business info, directions, sightseeing — plus a new one: finding new locations relevant to the web pages and emails you’re reading and showing them in your maps panel.

Geeks, meanwhile, are invited to pore over our script support for writing plug-ins, which makes it far easier to create home-brewed Sidebar panels. And Sidebar has a bunch of new third-party panels, most notably GDTunes, which cycles through your iTunes collection (and even shows album covers).

Finally, let me invite developers and anyone else who’s interested to check out our new Google Desktop blog for the latest news and info.

We’ve worked hard raising Desktop over the past two years. It’s great to see it growing up so nicely.

Google Desktop 2.0:

Google Desktop doesn’t just help you search your computer; it also helps you gather new information from the web with Sidebar, a new desktop feature that shows you your new email, weather and stock information, personalized news and RSS/Atom feeds, and more. Sidebar is personalized automatically, without any manual configuration required (though you can certainly make your own customizations if you want to).

We’ve also improved your desktop search experience. With Quick Find, you can now launch applications and see search results as you type without even opening a browser. We’ve also extended our Outlook integration, so you can search Google Desktop with the Outlook Toolbar and see results within Outlook itself. Finally, you can search even more stuff, including your Gmail, files on network drives, many Outlook data types (including Contacts, Tasks, Calendar, Notes and Journal) and MSN Messenger chats. And if you yearn for even stronger security, you can encrypt your entire index.