Google Deskbar (not the IE plugin)

In My Humble Opinion (IMHO)
#1

Further proof that Google is quite possibly the greatest company ever, whose inventions rank up there in usefulness with the wheel and fire: The Google Deskbar.

The major reason I’ve stuck with IE (outside of simple laziness) is that it’s the only browser capable of using the Google Toolbar. Now with the Deskbar, I don’t think that reason is quite so compelling.

The Deskbar basically gives you Google from your Windows taskbar, popping up search results in a small preview “mouse hover” window, which you can then send to a browser with a click if you wish.

It’s very, very cool. Check it out.

#2

I agree…have had tool bar and deskbar for awhile.

I have also had Google as my home page both at home and at work for many years.

Their news section isn’t bad either.

Wish other internet companies could be as good and reliable as Google. No wonder Microsoft has been making nice to them of late.

#3

Actually, there’s been a Google Toolbar for Mozilla for a while now.

http://googlebar.mozdev.org/

#4

But the deskbar is really neat too! Thanks for pointing it out.

#5

I use a deskbar called Dave’s Search Bar. It does Google…and Amazon…and almost any other search conceivable. It has some other things too, like a built-in calculator. It’s one of the coolest accessories I can think of. And it’s Open Source, to boot.

#6

Andros raises a point I forgot to mention…the Google Deskbar allows you to set up custom searches; as long as you know how the website passes search phrases in the URL, you can include it on the Deskbar and assign it shortcut keys. So Google does Amazon, too, though you’d have to set it up specifically.

“Out of the box” the deskbar has custom searches for Rotten Tomatoes for movie reviews, Download.com for software downloads, Reference.com for thesaurii and Yahoo Finance for stock quotes.

Oh, and you can use Google as a calculator, too, either on their webpage or through the Deskbar or Toolbar. Try “2+3” in a Google search box. Or even better, “5 kilometers in miles.”

#7

I read about it this morning on www.metafilter.com, and installed it right away.

Minor quibble - For the first couple hours, it kept messing with my Taskbar, and changing its size and shape, until I just let it go where it wanted to go, and not where I wanted it to go.

Other than that, it’s pretty neato.

#8

I guess I’ll be the dissenting voice here…I downloaded it, installed it, and could seen absolutely no difference between it and the IE Google toolbar. Oh, except for the fact that the Deskbar takes up a large chunk of space at the bottom of my screen.

Stickin’ with the IE toolbar.

#9

I think that’s the whole idea. It’s exactly the same, except you don’t need a whole browser window open, so you can put it at the bottom and save a little time if you’re doing something else, like writing.