It has been long since I spent sometime with Google Desktop. In fact, I think the last time I installed it was back in March of ‘07 when the version 5 beta came out. It’s a neat idea, but just not something that ever “sticks” with my day to day habits.

But just a while back, I read an article somewhere. It was saying that now we can use google desktop client to fulfill our e-mail needs. Well, there is a curiosity in everyone to know if there are several other ways to use our mailbox. And google desktop certainly answers, yes you can, and in a better way also!

Well, just to observe things and make this post, I installed Google desktop. Presently my syetem is running on XP. This is the best OS for google desktop.

First off, the new Gmail gadget is actually pretty useful and works as advertised. One neat option not mentioned in their blog post is that you can right-click and “collapse” the widget to just show the title bar and unread mail count. That’s handy if you have multiple accounts as it saves some space in the side bar or desktop. Just double-click to the collapsed widget to re-expand it. Alas, double-clicking the expanded widget does not collapse it though.

Down side? Just running 3 mail gadgets in the side bar uses a minimum of 40MB. If memory is a concern, this is probably not your best bet. Especially with various firefox and windows tray gmail notifiers out there.

I’m going to keep Desktop running for a few days and see if it gels with me. To lighten the load, I’ve disabled the desktop search options – never need ‘em so no sense in having them run.

Perhaps more later… Oh, and if you’re a Google Desktop user, I’d welcome suggestions on useful gadgets.