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Google Desktop 3 Beta

Announcement
February 9, 2006

Today Google is launching Google Desktop 3 Beta (desktop.google.com), the latest version of our flagship desktop application.

The new features in Google Desktop 3 make finding and sharing information even easier for our users. With this version, we’ve added new ways for users to customize the Sidebar, share information with friends, and search for content no matter where it resides.

We know people have a lot going on and can’t always remember where every piece of information they need resides – whether it’s a phone number in an email, a to-do list on a home computer, or a work memo they need access to at 2 a.m. from a hotel in Tallahassee. And we know they don’t have time to go looking for it.

That’s why we want to give users better access to all the information that matters to them. Whether it’s on the web, in their email, or on multiple computers, users should have it at their fingertips when they need it, in a format that’s convenient for them.

With Desktop 3, users can now:

  • Customize and view any combination of personalized information (photos, weather, news, maps, stock quotes, and more) – anywhere on their desktop that’s relevant to them. With the enhanced Sidebar, users can undock panels from the Sidebar and place them directly on the desktop wherever they like.
  • Search the text of their documents and viewed web pages across all their computers. Search Across Computers is an advanced feature designed for people who regularly use multiple computers. It helps users easily access information from all of their computers, so they don’t need to remember where all of their documents are organized or filed.
  • Easily share content from their Sidebar with a friend, including news, websites, games and more. Interesting information in the Sidebar can be emailed to a friend’s inbox or sent directly to a friend’s Sidebar using Google Talk. Users can even play games with their friends right in their Sidebar.
  • Lock Google Desktop search with a Windows password. Search lock helps users prevent other users of that computer from being able to search files.
  • Other new features include: advanced search forms for helping users build advanced queries, spelling suggestions for users’ queries, the ability to disable indexing, the addition of zip file indexing, and an improved preferences page.

Additionally, new Google Desktop APIs enable easy development of Sidebar panel plug-ins that leverage the product’s new communication and sharing capabilities. Dozens of new third-party Sidebar panels have been developed, allowing users to do everything from track items on eBay, receive up-to-the minute job openings, and monitor rush hour traffic. Additional info on Sidebar panels is available at desktop.google.com/plugins/.

Google Desktop is a free downloadable application and runs on Windows XP or Windows 2000 SP3+. The new version is currently available in English but will be offered in 15 international languages by the end of the quarter.

Additional information is available in the product reviewer’s guide at: www.google.com/intl/en/press/guides.html and in today’s blog post at: googleblog.blogspot.com.

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