Google Desktop
Brad Hill re Google Desktop...
"Today Google releases a beta of Google Desktop 2, a thoroughly revamped version of the computer-searching program. This iteration further erases the difference between local content and network content, a dividing line already smeared by the original Google Desktop Search.
"The most significant interface change is in the appearance of a vertical sidebar that slams onto the side of the desktop, top to bottom, and presents various information nuggets from news, weather, photos, email, and stocks, to … [gasp!] ... RSS feeds. These are not called RSS feeds, but Web Clips (further justifying Microsoft’s too-controversial testing of “Web feeds” as an alternate name for RSS). The sidebar contains bookmarks and a scratch pad. Tell me if I’m wrong, and pinch me if I’m asleep, but this thing is starting to look a little like … a browser. It can be minimized manually, but it actually remains open on the desktop even after clicking Show the Desktop in the taskbar. Let it be known from this moment: Google is serious. It wants to take your desktop away from Microsoft..."
Brad's complete comments can be found here, which include an embedded link to the Desktop download. (Also in this blog's sidebar, under "Google".)
In a separate item comes this article from John Markoff at the NY Times (requires free registration):
"Where to Spend $4 Billion? Google Has Plenty of Projects in Mind"
"This week, in two product introductions, Google will both reinforce its central mission and give an early hint of how it is planning to broaden its business strategy beyond advertising-supported Internet searches. On Monday, Google is planning to introduce a second-generation version of its downloadable computer search tool, Google Desktop... Google executives say they plan to unveil on Wednesday a "communications tool" that is potentially a clear step beyond the company's search-related business focus..." (See the complete article for all the juicy details.)
As a futurist, I vote in favor of the space elevator. Heck, even as an investor, I vote for the space elevator. Especially in light of the developments and breakthroughs that accumulate rapidly in the field of nano-technology, an enabling technology:
"Scientists have created the ultimate ribbon. A thousand times thinner than a human hair and a few centimetres wide, the carbon sheet is stronger than steel for its weight, and could open the door to everything from artificial muscles to a space elevator capable of sending astronauts and tourists into orbit.
"The team of nanotechnology experts from the University of Texas at Dallas and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation in Australia have developed a way to assemble a form of carbon called "nanotubes" into flat sheets."
(All this futuristic speculation matches off well with the very entertaining novel I now enjoy, The Collapsium by Wil McCarthy. (Link in sidebar.) The ideas Wil tosses out are exciting and way out there, and yet each is doable. In fact, Wil pursues now the notion of programmable matter, a topic of a future presentation of the Las Vegas Future Salon.)
"Today Google releases a beta of Google Desktop 2, a thoroughly revamped version of the computer-searching program. This iteration further erases the difference between local content and network content, a dividing line already smeared by the original Google Desktop Search.
"The most significant interface change is in the appearance of a vertical sidebar that slams onto the side of the desktop, top to bottom, and presents various information nuggets from news, weather, photos, email, and stocks, to … [gasp!] ... RSS feeds. These are not called RSS feeds, but Web Clips (further justifying Microsoft’s too-controversial testing of “Web feeds” as an alternate name for RSS). The sidebar contains bookmarks and a scratch pad. Tell me if I’m wrong, and pinch me if I’m asleep, but this thing is starting to look a little like … a browser. It can be minimized manually, but it actually remains open on the desktop even after clicking Show the Desktop in the taskbar. Let it be known from this moment: Google is serious. It wants to take your desktop away from Microsoft..."
Brad's complete comments can be found here, which include an embedded link to the Desktop download. (Also in this blog's sidebar, under "Google".)
In a separate item comes this article from John Markoff at the NY Times (requires free registration):
"Where to Spend $4 Billion? Google Has Plenty of Projects in Mind"
"This week, in two product introductions, Google will both reinforce its central mission and give an early hint of how it is planning to broaden its business strategy beyond advertising-supported Internet searches. On Monday, Google is planning to introduce a second-generation version of its downloadable computer search tool, Google Desktop... Google executives say they plan to unveil on Wednesday a "communications tool" that is potentially a clear step beyond the company's search-related business focus..." (See the complete article for all the juicy details.)
As a futurist, I vote in favor of the space elevator. Heck, even as an investor, I vote for the space elevator. Especially in light of the developments and breakthroughs that accumulate rapidly in the field of nano-technology, an enabling technology:
"Scientists have created the ultimate ribbon. A thousand times thinner than a human hair and a few centimetres wide, the carbon sheet is stronger than steel for its weight, and could open the door to everything from artificial muscles to a space elevator capable of sending astronauts and tourists into orbit.
"The team of nanotechnology experts from the University of Texas at Dallas and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation in Australia have developed a way to assemble a form of carbon called "nanotubes" into flat sheets."
(All this futuristic speculation matches off well with the very entertaining novel I now enjoy, The Collapsium by Wil McCarthy. (Link in sidebar.) The ideas Wil tosses out are exciting and way out there, and yet each is doable. In fact, Wil pursues now the notion of programmable matter, a topic of a future presentation of the Las Vegas Future Salon.)
posted by David M Gordon | 4:21 AM
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