So far, I like the sidebar, and better than desktop sidebar, which I tried recently. [ducking flames].

However, there is that memory leak, which I hope is fixed soon. I'm at 1.8G virtual memory on the crawler, 1.7G peak private bytes this session. With only 1G memory on a laptop, that is enough to slow everything.

I love the new sidebar! There's a site which is developing more plugins: http://www.desktop-plugins.com

This software is excellent except for the following:
- Gmail integration is broken
- HUGE memory leak in the crawler component that crashes my computer (and I have .5GB RAM, 1.5GB virtual memory) if it stays on screensaver long enough.

Unfortunately I am forced to not use this software because of especially the last problem.

OK....I actually installed it and I like it.

It's not so bad.

So.....I retract my previous "retard" statements. :)

Nice to see someone actually tried the software before commenting. Thanks for doing that...now if we could just get a few others to do the same.

I wish there was some way to increase the front size on it though. I'm running 1600x1200 and can hardly see the text in the widgets. It's easier once they are opened up, but still not great.

The more ability we get to customize it, the better it'll be IMO. It's only BETA, so they've got room to tweak.

Still no Picasa integration or support for multiple GMail accounts. :(

I love you d3, lol

Picasa would be a nice feature.

this piece of crap doesn't install if you have some of the most common virus scanners installed (including nod32, norton...).

Umm.... blame your scanners; not the program. Norton is the piece of crap in this case IMO.

Try disabling them during installation? I have Avast, AVG, Bitdefender, and Clamwin installed on my PC. On top of that, I have MS Anti-Spyware and Spybot S&D's resident shields running. I had no problem installing this program whatsoever.

isn't it sad how so many speak from an emotional standpoint... it's freak'in software and were here to review it.... so please do so

Very, very useful features.

I've already found the Weather, System Monitor, Scratch Pad, and Email panels extremely useful. And of course, the desktop search works great as always.

I would like a few more configuration options for the System Monitor (like Desktop Sidebar has), but this is a great start. It is also fairly light on the system resources.

Again, I can't wait to see the new plugins that will start coming out now. Hopefully someone will make a Winamp plugin fast.

There are already a lot of plugins available. The Gaim log plugin works great (I now have all my chat logs indexed for fast searching!).

The weather doesn't work. it says it's 90 out. it's 76.

www.desktopsidebar.com

enough said :)

Thanks...

I sorta already knew about that one...

I used it a long time ago and uninstalled it because it was so buggy.

The bar probably pulls it's numbers from weather.com or something. Can't blame the bar, it's the fault of whatever incompetant weather station is in your area. :p

Amen! Desktop Sidebar is a fantastic program that has far more feautres and looks great!

As far as bugs go, I've already seen more bugs using the Google sidebar for 2 days than I have in over 3 months with Desktop Sidebar.

Still, a great product, but there are better :)

The desktop search has improved much. I love the RSS, Quick View and App launch features.

The best feature, though? Monitoring stocks. Now I can monitor my huge investment in Alcoa aluminum. With all the paranoid goofballs out there making aluminum hats, I expect a windfall.

Cheers.

rofl.

That was awesome.

99% agree with ServerMechanic on this one (the 1 % I don't agree on is the linux thing)...

I use GMail... but that's it. I have other email accounts that have nothing to do with Google. Google is great for searching the net, but that's it. I don't need everyone in the world knowing what's on my boxes... even if the people would be board looking at it. Anytime I see any of these tool bars installed on any one of my clients machines I always recommend that they remove them.

:lol:

Because there's all this proof out there that Google is stockpiling all this info they're supposedly gathering to use in some big evil way, right?

Or is that just the tinfoil bunch spreading FUD to the masses.

Personal information is just that, and Google respects that. When you can show me one instance where that is *not* the case, let me know.

> Personal information is just that,
> and Google respects that. When you
> can show me one instance where that
> is *not* the case, let me know.

Google Web Accelerator.

So they collect information about you through the web accelerator?

Wrong.

Of course they keep track of activity on their servers, but it is never personally identifiable.

**EDIT**
I can't spell...

It's not the fact that they can or can't... it's the fact that there are idiot hackers and people like the guy who stole all the email addresses from... I believe AOL which was one of their own employees something like 15000000 addresses or something. What about those guys? Do you think Google is impervious to this? Wake up and smell the coffee, better yet pick up a couple at Tims - for me Large one cream two sugar... boys I can almost smell it.

Anyway the point being is that some yahoo could get their hands on this data and for god only knows what reason or reasons and maybe even sell it to.... Microsoft or someone who cares, I don't know... but it certainly could happen. I'm behind a Router and a Firewall... so it really won't effect this particular box.

Oh God... Don't drive, you could get hit. Don't go to sleep, you could die in your sleep. Don't use google, *someone* might get your data...

idiot.

That's nice. Although, death is not a problem... $4!t Happens. I've still got 2 or 3 lives left yet any way.

:o) Jesus Loves you man.

I have no problem with the stuff google is putting out, I use most of it. When is the Google OS coming out?

Repeat after me.

GBrowser.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

Nah. Web-based Office Suite. That's what I heard.

You're serious? I thought you were just joking before.

Yup. They've got the E-Mail. They're already 1/4 of the way done. Snappy little Calander, document editor, spreadsheet and presentation manager and they're done. Groupware for the masses.

All of the documents will be multi-versioned, online, etc... no chance of losing it to a server crash, or not being able to access it from the local starbucks.

These guys are all about information management, right?

NOTE: This is all BS. Or is it?

Gooser will be out shortly, GoOS will be out sometime in late '08. (The Office suite will hit the net mid '07.) Really. I guarantee it.

Kinda getting tired of all this Google Hype.

So what...

If you want them to collect info about you, your surf habits, your email, and other stuff then you feel free to use it.

I'm tired of Google being the 800lb gorilla.

I don't need Google to do everything for me nor do I need Micrsoft to do it either.

I guess if you want a tiny amount of privacy then you have to use Linux and also run your own email server at home.

Probably.

Being paranoid must be lonely =/

> If you want them to collect info about you, your surf habits, your email, and other stuff then you feel free to use it.

What. Ever.

I'd say get a clue, I'd even point out how horribly clueless you are, but it'd be a waste of time.

Notice that by using this product, Google collects information about you and your computer files and stores it on their servers for their research benefit. Just FYI.

You forgot to mention that that's only if you choose to use the advanced features.

And Google doesn't store information about your personal files on their servers. The information is stored in an index on the PC, which you can choose to have encrypted as well.

...FYI

Your claim is misleading and ignorant.

Just FYI.

sidebar schmidebar, google worked because it was mimimalist. i don't know why i'm bothering to even comment, this is so boring.

hmmmmm.....maybe just wanted to hear yourself whine???

Wow, man...back off a bit, okay? You've done nothing but attack folks today.

Take a lesson from my kid and when things get to stressful, sit down, cross your legs, eyes, arms and fingers. Take deep breaths and wait until you cannot hear the blood rushing past your ears anymore.

Better?

LOL! Trust me, no stress was caused by your post or my response. I found your post utterly ridiculous and responded appropriately. Had you taken those deep breaths you mention BEFORE you posted, you might not have drawn my response.

Have a great day! :o)

You know you can turn the sidebar OFF, right?

:lol:

MmmmKay...

Google does it again!

Mmm...more desktop clutter. Can't really see the point to this unless they come out with some really wicked plugins.

You tried it right??? Uh-huh. It has a very nice autohide feature to eliminate the "clutter." And, there are some very nice plugins. So, the point of your post was......?

I think the man said... Wicked Plugins.... is what the point was. A plugin that gives you more of something might be considered a Wicked Plugin.

Wow. Didn't realize I had posted flamebait.

Read this:

"Opinion"

Now this:

"May not be yours."

Okay... got it?

Now...in reference to my trying the software:

I haven't, as a matter of fact. And yes, I assumed it had an auto-hide feature, any decent semi-permanent desktop object would. Do I need it? Would I find it useful? Is it still clutter even if it only comes out when my mouse pointer gets too close?

No. Probably Not. Yes (IMHO).

Relax, man.

Dude, my point is this....try the software BEFORE posting. This adds value to your opinion. Not trying it first makes your opinion utterly worthless and a waste of keyboard strokes.

According to you? Well, that'll surely change my posting habits.

Nah....but it might encourage a passing thought. Watch for it.

Did google buy out desktop sidebar people? this looks VERY similar to it.

I think it looks similar because they took the idea from the same place DesktopSidebar did: Windows Vista. There really aren't that many different ways to make a sidebar like this.

I USED to be a user of DesktopSidebar, but google has done it again for me. Although google desktop search isnt exactly light on resources, it has 3-5 process's that run, with a total of about 50 megs memory..

GoogleDesktop.exe 1,296K
GoogleDesktopCrawl.exe 13,516K
GoogleDesktopDisplay 13,524K
GoogleDesktopIndex.exe 15,412K
GoogleDesktopMail.exe 4,268K

So, your machine is how old and has how much memory? I get tired of the geezer posts about memory. Pop open the wallet and buy a gig or two already!!!

Im not complaining, dont get me wrong. One guy posted that DSB was a hog, and i was just posting this to show him. Im not an old geexer, and i dont have a crap machine, unless AMD 64 4700+, 2 G ddr3500, geforce 6800 is crap. I love the new side bar, and if you look at my post, youll notice i said i ditched DSB for this one :)

Now that its finished indexing, its low on resource usage, this is just a follow up for you complainers :)

GoogleDesktop.exe 3,648K
GoogleDesktopCrawl.exe 2,640K
GoogleDesktopDisplay 12,392K
GoogleDesktopIndex.exe 10,328K
GoogleDesktopMail.exe 3,796K

Ogman... just wanted to hear himself, he was bored. So am I that's why I am reading about Google - Again. But it's funny to see what Ogman has to knock at today. hehe If anything he's always a good laff.

Seems a tad jumpy today.

ogman... perhaps a bit less caffiene in the mornings, eh?

OMG!! I want your computer! Mine isn't bad, but holy crap!

*drools*

Yeah, so far I've found it to be a lot lighter on system resources than DesktopSidebar was. However, it has been a long time since I used it, so maybe they've improved DesktopSidebar. I don't know.

I need a mop.

I don't know about the caffeine, but a few less uninformed comments by you would make my day. ;o)

That's funny. I'll be sure to post more since it seems to have such a massive effect on your well-being.

Eh... How's she goin eh? Really, I just don't believe in sharing everything. McDonald's doesn't tell A&W what they put in their secret sauce...

Thanks, now I can totally give up the caffiene. ;o)

Sweet! Can't wait to see the plugins people will make. I never could get used to desktop sidebar. It was heavy on system resources and kept crashing on me*. Hopefully, this one will work better. Downloading now.

*for those of you who love Desktop Sidebar and will say "your system must suck", I have a P4 3.4Ghz CPU and 2Gb of DDR400 RAM.

There are some cool plugins I like..:
- Todo (very handy and simple todo list)
- System Monitor
- A cool clock

yeah, the clock designs they have are waay weak.

Try Yahoo's Widget, and you will quickly forget those Google sidebar plugins