Grading Google Desktop: B+

After using it for a couple weeks, I have found the latest iteration of Google Desktop to be moderately useful, but not essential by any means. It doesn’t wow like gmail. Considering that I use the search functionality infrequently Google Desktop must actually be useful for me to run it all the time since it is a resource hog. At this very moment, its components are sucking precious resources doing things of questionable value. GoogleDesktopDisplay.exe is using 76.5 MB of RAM, GoogleDesktopCrawl.exe is using 5.3 MB, GoogleDesktop.exe is using 1.7 MB, GoogleDesktopMail.exe is using 5 MB, and GoogleDesktopCrawl.exe is using 5.3 MB for a total of 93.8 MB of total RAM usage. Is that really necessary or does it have a memory leak? Here’s a rundown of the sidebar features:

  1. Docking – the sidebar docks to one side of your desktop. I liked this at first, but unless you use the sidebar a lot you’ll be tempted to shut it off.
  2. Gmail notification – This is somewhat useful except that there are Firefox extensions, Trillian plugins, and standalone Google apps that do the same thing.
  3. Web clips – I have yet to use this feature. I still don’t understand where or how it determines what to put in there.
  4. Todo list – This is a good idea, except in practice I put a few todos and then they just sit there. I use Outlook for task tracking if I use any software.
  5. Scratch pad – I still use paper to take little notes, but the Google Scratch Pad has the nice ability to save to a file. I have the same problem with this as with the todo list. I make notes then never do anything with them.
  6. Quick view – I have yet to make good use of this.
  7. News – Sage for news, so no chance to put this to good use.
  8. Photos – Very neat. Useful maybe.
  9. Stock ticker – Very useful. Nice and simple.
  10. Weather – Useful, but you could use the Weatherfox Firefox plugin to do the same thing.

The best part about the sidebar is that they have adopted the Firefox / Trillian model of opening up the plugin architecture so that end-users can develop their own extensions and plugins. The integration with Desktop search is a bonus.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 6th, 2005 at 5:21 pm and is filed under Software / Internet. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

4 comments

  1. Jonathan Aquino
    9/8/2005 at 11:05 pm

    yeah, I also found it so-so.

  2. Mikey
    9/11/2005 at 9:20 am

    try 150 megs of ram

  3. chris sivori
    9/13/2005 at 4:21 pm

    Test driving gravatar support

  4. Ice Cream Franchise
    10/3/2006 at 8:10 am

    Like what you have to say. Your blog makes good since to me.