Google expands desktop real estate


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SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Google's taking up a lot of real estate on our computer desktops.

In a bid to improve its desktop search service, and ultimately better understand its users, Google released a new version of its desktop application that includes integration with Microsoft's Outlook and a relatively large toolbar with links to personalized information.

Google's (GOOG: news, chart, profile) enhanced desktop application, its second version after first rolling it out back in October 2004, now has a search box that is integrated into Outlook. This integration makes Google's desktop search function more accessible for users who want to search their Outlook email.

More importantly, the search software features a vertical pop-up bar that takes up a fifth of the width and the entire height of the screen. The sidebar acts as a dashboard of sorts that provides a quick rundown and links to personalized information feeds, such as mail, news, photos and stock quotes.

Google's sidebar, automatically added to the desktop when Google's latest desktop software is downloaded, has a similar yet busier feel to that of the instant-messaging clients offered by Time Warner's (TWX: news, chart, profile) AOL, Yahoo (YHOO: news, chart, profile) , Microsoft (MSFT: news, chart, profile) and VoIP provider Skype. The only thing missing from Google's sidebar is the ability for users to instant message their friends. See Net Stocks: Why Google needs IM.

The sidebar has nine information feeds that are preloaded. All the information is updated automatically based on what a user has read or accessed. For instance, a photo panel is preloaded with photos from a user's desktop as well as from visited Web albums. In time, photos are automatically added from Web pages visited. News is listed based on the sites read by the user.

It's unclear how Google will ultimately make money on this service. But one thing is pretty clear: The company hopes to understand its users better by giving them a relatively unobtrusive yet easily accessible way to get all their personal information in one place. Also, the information is also updated automatically based on users' behavior, like pages visited or the kind of news preferred.

It seems that in some ways -- by Google automating the process, combined with users' input -- the search firm is moving closer to its ambitious, albeit unstated, goal of knowing everything about everyone.

Of course, that depends on whether the Google sidebar isn't removed.

PodShow

Adam Curry and Ron Bloom received nearly $9 million in venture-capital funding to build out PodShow, a podcasting network. Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia Capital are the investors.

Curry and Bloom stopped by MarketWatch to share their plans on using the capital and how the two seek to reach 100 million listeners by the end of next year.  Watch interview with Bloom and Curry.

Sound off: How has Google innovated? Email Bambi.Francisco@dowjones.com

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