New and improved Desktop

Posted by Mendel Chuang, Product Marketing Manager

For the past several months, we've been working on ways to let you better get information on your desktop through gadgets and sidebar. We've also thought about improving how you search your computer. Today, we are happy to be releasing the Google Desktop 5 beta application.

The most prominent changes you'll notice are to our gadgets and sidebar. Some of the gadgets have been redesigned to provide you with the same useful information but in a more easy to read and visually appealing format. The sidebar has also been changed to blend in even more with your desktop.



In addition, we've also improved:

• Desktop Search - Now when you do searches, Google Desktop enables you to preview your search results right inside the browser, so you don't need to wait for an entire application to open just to make sure you’ve found the file you were looking for.
  

• Security - We take your security very seriously, and have added some new features to help make your search experience safer. Whether you’re clicking on links from documents, IMs and email or browsing the web, if we have information that the site you're visiting might be trying to steal your personal information or install malicious software on your computer, we'll give you a warning first so you can decide if you want to use the site.
  

Improving the way you get information on your desktop is important to us; we hope that these changes help you do that. To find out more about what's new with Desktop 5, read this post on the Google Desktop Blog.