UberNoggin

In my constant search for desktop “pull” perfection I’m always looking for some kind of aggregator that truly pulls everything I care about in one place. Google Desktop definitely shows some promise.

Yes, it sits on your desktop. Yes, that can be distracting. Yes, it has all kinds of feeds that might shove info in your face that you’re not interested in. BUT! You can change all of that, customize it in really powerful and handy ways, and make it exactly what you want.

For example, mine has short cuts to all of my Office apps (which I use, oh, a MILLION times a day), my Skype connections, the local weather, my gmail, news headlines (from sources I picked), a little notepad, a feed from my Flickr photos, my RSS feeds, a to do list, and a Google search bar.

Some of the gadgets you can add are a bit silly like the one that tells your the Star Trek stardate for the day. But hey, I’m sure someone is in love with that gadget.

What I like most about it is that it really does aggregate the first four or five tabs that I open every day when I sit down at my desk. It saves me time. Yes, it actually saves me time! So much of the technology I play with is cool for about a day and then I realize that I’m not able/willing to integrate the technology into my daily routine. If you can’t make easy use of it then it doesn’t work for you and you have to move on.

My only wish for the Google Desktop is a TV plugin. I have Media Center on my machine and I have a guilty habit of watching schlock like Dr. Phil while I work. It would be lovely to have it on a little screen on my desktop sidebar. Hey, a girl can dream, right? Maybe Google knows what’s best for me and doesn’t have this little plugin to save my productivity.

Give Google Desktop a try and tell me what you think. Is it great? Is it horrible? What gadgets do you like best?

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