I'll admit that I was a fan of Google Desktop at first, what with the rapid browser previews of searched email and the ability to crunch through web histories and past searches. Over time, unfortunately, GD's reindexing began to feel a mite sluggish, and I eventually regretfully uninstalled it in the interest of better performance. Now, with the announcement of native access to Google Gadgets bundled in with Desktop, allowing me to put my favorite Gadgets right in the Dashboard with no mussing about, I figured I'd give GD another shot, and take the reindexing hit or simply turn the search features off.
Guess what? As noted in this comment, a subtle "Choose your own features" link on Google's download page lets you split up the two functions of GD, and just install the Gadget manager without the desktop search component. Very nice!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-29-2007 @ 11:29AM
link.dupont said...
This is nice and all, but it doesn't appear to play well with my proxy. I connect to the Internet through an HTTP proxy, and Google Gadgets bounces in the dock for a while until it eventually displays a "unable to connect to Google" dialog. `netstat -p tcp` shows a SYN_SENT to a google.com address, rather than an attempt to connect through my proxy. I thought Google knew better than to ignore System Preferences. ;)
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11-29-2007 @ 11:36AM
cj said...
Nothing new here. why add another app when spotlight does what it does. I don't use widgets either.
Lame video, doesn't help sell it.
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11-29-2007 @ 11:40AM
Johnny said...
Hey... Off topic, but I just noticed the new comments features. Nice. I was wondering if TUAW would ever move to comments more like Engadget, etc.
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11-29-2007 @ 4:10PM
Think Adrian said...
Yay! Nice surprise, eh? :)
11-29-2007 @ 2:33PM
Thomas said...
I opened up Google Updater and it allowed me to install Gadgets separately. I was so excited.
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11-29-2007 @ 2:41PM
Carl said...
Anyone figure out how to use the Google Reader Gadget as a widget yet?
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11-30-2007 @ 3:41AM
aathanor said...
Just use the Web Clip in Safari and hoover over any tool you've added in iGoogle web page. Click, and you have an instant widget, no need to install Google Desktop
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12-03-2007 @ 3:40PM
Laurent said...
This is all nice, but does this application still require administrator access to work ?
I am not exactly ready to reduce the security of my system in order to run something that has no valid technical reasons to gain full access to all my data.
Seems like it's fine with TUAW if google can do whatever they want on your computer, but sorry, not so for me. It's enough that they can browse my personal data, they don't need the ability to format my drive and read my passwords as well. I don't need another security hole ready to be exploited by worms and viruses to come.
Daring Fireball made a very informative article at this subject, read it guys :)
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