Google Desktop leaves beta

By Steve Malone

Posted on 7 Nov 2005 at 10:29

Google Desktop is now officially out of beta. The product aims to organise not only a user's web searches but will also index a range of files on the local hard disk including Word and Excel documents as well as stored email messages. It will also include chats via Chats from AOL 7+, AOL Instant Messenger 5+, and MSN Messenger.

It also marks the first steps in Google's target of becoming a portal by offering personalised weather, share information, customised news and RSS/Atom feeds.

The company is also hoping to attract a thriving community of third party add-ins for Desktop with enhancements to the Google Desktop API which allows developers to create their own sidebars. Among those already available are indexers for various email clients, images and audio files from iTunes.

The full version also includes a Google Maps sidebar that finds locations relevant to the web pages and emails currently being viewed and shown in the maps panel

Quite what it means these days for a Google product to leave beta is unsure. Some of its services such as Google News have been in beta for years and show no signs of leaving home anytime soon despite being widely used and tested and seemingly perfectly stable.