A while ago, I switched from Google Desktop Search to Microsoft Desktop Search for this latter has a better Operating System integration - You bet!
Yesterday, I installed the new release of Google Desktop and… WoW! The guys at Google did an amazing job on this update!
In no particular order, here are the new features I noticed:
Sidebar
You may choose the usual deskbar or floating deskbar. You may also use the new Sidebar that gives you acces to Emails, News, Photos, a Scratch Pad, Stocks (only US so far), Weather (only US so far), Quick View, etc. I say ‘etc‘ because Google opened the Sidebar API, it’s up to the community to propose new Plug-ins. There could for example be a Plug-in to notify you when there is a new post on my Personal Website 
- Email integration
Now, GDS comes with GMail and Outlook integration. You can search your emails directly from your Desktop without going to Outlook or GMail website. You’ll get also notified of new emails in the GDS Sidebar
- News
Latest news headlines personalized to your interests, based on what articles you read on Internet. Pay attention, this means that GDS sends information about you to Google.
- Web Clips
For Google, a Web Clip is an RSS feed. GDS Sidebars acts as an RSS or ATOM aggregator.
- Scratch Pad
Just a usual Scratch Pad without any fancy features. It’s convenient if you have to remember something for a short time.
- Weather
Too bad they only support US Cities… I’m just wondering why… Well, we’ll have to wait for another Plug-in for Beijing and Brussels
- Photos
Watch a slideshow of photos from the web and on your computer. You may define which folder on your disk and which online website will be the source of this random Slide Show.
- Stocks
Keep track of up-to-the-minute prices for your favorite stocks. This one also is only for US…
- Quick View
The Quick View gives you a list of frequently used web pages and files.
Other Features
- New filters
You may easily filter the GDS search results based on the filetype
- Timeline
Browsing history, what Files, Emails, Chats, Web Pages did you browse day by day. This timeline contains all files cached by GDS.
- Encryption and password protection
One of the big issues met by GDS was the concern of the user’s privacy. You may now encrypt your index and protect it with a password. Though, this will affect GDS performance.
Limitations
Here are some features for which I still prefer Microsoft Desktop Search System.
- Strong integration with the File Explorer, direct access to the Files’ context menu
- Preview of all Files in the Desktop Search Application
Now, of course, you still have the rumor that Google is preparing its own Operating System… Maybe that for Christmas, we will have a new Operating System integrating smoothly with the Google Desktop Search Engine.
