Google Gadgets for Productivity

Get the best data on the Web fed to you -- effortlessly

By Greg Brown

There's a lot to be said about Google's full-frontal attack on the software industry. It is buying and relaunching all kinds of basic software offerings for free, including word processing, spreadsheets and online collaboration.

Less understood, and perhaps equally fascinating, is the world of third-party plug-ins, known as "gadgets" that roam the Web for you, looking up airfares, tracking news or otherwise keeping you up-to-date. Some are serious time-killers, but many are suprisingly useful.

First and foremost, get Google Desktop

This little-understood Google browser plug-in creates a searchable index of your own PC hard drive, as well as any drive you can reach on a local network, even behind passworded folders (assuming you tell Desktop the password).
Try: After a few hours of examing your drive, you can suddenly lightning-quick search for obscure files, forgotten e-mails (even in Outlook), any office file, calendar item, stray spreadsheet -- whatever. No more opening nests of files for the one document you need now. Downloading the main program gives you access to a brace of essential gadgets written by Google itself, such as e-mail, weather and maps modules, plus the only to-do list I've found simple enough to keep using.

Go beyond simply searching phrases

The most annoying part of looking for a specific file is knowing it exists -- somewhere -- but not being able to nail it down.
Try: Google allows a series of search strategies, like searching for phrases and file types. If you know some client's specific data is in an Excel spreadsheet, for instance, knock any other type of file out of the search in one click.

Power search the Web from your desktop

If you've become addicted to quick fact-checking, you know by now that opening Web pages over and over can slow you down, particuarly on deadline.
Try: Several gagets will run searchs on typed-in terms straight from the desktop, including Wikipedia, FareCompare for airline ticket prices, for instance, and Google itself, as a part of the Desktop control panel. More get written every week.

Speedsurf the news that matters

It is getting much easier to digest news and data from the many Web sites that matter to professionals. Gadgets can help you follow the strands of info that matter with no Web browsing required.
Try: NPR Now Playing tracks the popular public-radio news programs. There are several ways to track stocks and financial indices as well as Google News and your own chosen RSS feeds. For geeks, there's a module that scrolls the top 10 stories on user-driven news organization Digg.com.

Keep track of the real world outside

Zoning out in the radiation bath of your computer's screen can put you out of the loop, reality-wise.
Try: Stay on top of times to call clients or associates with an international clock, watch for traffic problems as you head out for appointments, keep a big deadline in perspective with a countdown clock, and plan your week with the lovely Weather Globe.

Do simple things more simply, or better

Programmers love to one-up operating system designers, so a number of Google gadgets are written specifically to improve the performance of the computer itself.
Try: For instance, using gadgets you could sniff out a wireless network near you, track laptop battery strength, work out your travel expenses or just shutdown your computer very quickly. The scariest and but most fun is a shredder which can overwrite a file up to 35 times, rendering it totally and unequivocally gone.

There are three possible locations for the desktop search box: always on top, in the bottom bar or on a disappearing (and translucent) side bar. Alternatively, you can shift to "search desktop" from an ordinary Google Web search page, and vice-versa.
The gadets have an odd way of appearing and disappearing from the desktop. This is a feature designed to keep them out of the way while you work. Hold down the Alt key and hit the Esc key (upper left) at the same time to make them all reappear.
Google takes responsibility for a small number of the total gadgets available. Most of the rest are done free of charge by programmers. They are often well-written, stable and work as advertised, but some are not quite ready for prime-time.