The YouTube gadget

The Google Desktop team is pleased to release a YouTube gadget for Google Desktop. It plays YouTube videos right inside the gadget and shows a feed of the day's most popular videos. Please check out the official announcement on the YouTube blog.



Watching YouTube videos is a favorite pastime of mine while waiting for code to compile or team meetings to conclude. Now with this gadget, I am able to waste time more productively, as I can bring up the gadget in an instant and search for videos (hint: pressing the shift key twice brings up all your hidden Desktop gadgets).

Please give it a try and stay tuned for more new gadgets ...

Posted by James Yum, Developer Programs Engineer (Google Desktop Team)

Featured gadget: On-Screen Ruler

Name: On-Screen Ruler
Author: Edwin Lee
Description: Ruler on your desktop to help you align your on-screen elements, and measure the number of pixels between them.

More information | Download gadget

Each week this blog features a recently added Google Desktop gadget that looks promising. If you'd like to see all new Desktop gadgets as they're published, subscribe to the RSS feed. 

Posted by Kathy Walrath, Technical Writer

Featured gadget: Persian Calendar

Name: Persian Calendar
Author: Mehdy Bohlool
Description: Persian Plus Georgian Calendar

More information | Download gadget

Each week this blog features a recently added Google Desktop gadget that looks promising. If you'd like to see all new Desktop gadgets as they're published, subscribe to the RSS feed.

Posted by Kathy Walrath, Technical Writer

Featured gadget: Periodic Table

Name: Periodic Table for Google Desktop
Author: Paul Alan Freshney
Description: Detailed information on every element

More information | Download gadget

Each week this blog features a recently added Google Desktop gadget that looks promising. If you'd like to see all new Desktop gadgets as they're published, subscribe to the RSS feed.

Posted by Kathy Walrath, Technical Writer

Featured gadget: Task List and Timer

Name: Task List and Timer
Author: Adam Hotz
Description: Allows you to track tasks and the time spent on them.

More information | Download gadget

Each week this blog features a recently added Google Desktop gadget that looks promising. If you'd like to see all new Desktop gadgets as they're published, subscribe to the RSS feed.

Posted by Kathy Walrath, Technical Writer

Featured gadget: Periodic Table Interactive

Name: Periodic Table Interactive
Author: Rosie Ojo
Description: Periodic table knowledge base of chemical elements, from hydrogen to ununoctium, with video demonstrations from internationally renowned chemist, Professor Martyn.

More information | Download gadget

Each week this blog features a recently added Google Desktop gadget that looks promising. If you'd like to see all new Desktop gadgets as they're published, subscribe to the RSS feed.

Posted by Kathy Walrath, Technical Writer

Featured gadget: Tabbed Todo List

Name: Tabbed Todo List
Author: Teodor Filimon
Description: Helps you organize your to-do tasks better by allowing you to put them into tabs/categories.

More information | Download gadget

Each week this blog features a recently added Google Desktop gadget that looks promising. If you'd like to see all new Desktop gadgets as they're published, subscribe to the RSS feed.

Posted by Kathy Walrath, Technical Writer

Featured gadget: Resource Hog Tracker

Name: Resource Hog Tracker
Author: Prithvi Prabhu
Description: Tracks processes that consume the most CPU cycles, memory and perform the most I/O operations on your computer.

More information | Download gadget

Each week this blog features a recently added Google Desktop gadget that looks promising. If you'd like to see all new Desktop gadgets as they're published, subscribe to the RSS feed.

Posted by Kathy Walrath, Technical Writer

Featured gadget: Economic Forecast Meter

Name: Economic Forecast Meter
Author: The Idea Support Laboratory Hirameki Juku
Description: The sun shows next boom! When the number of sunspots increases, the economy gets powerful. This gadget shows the number of sunspots to predict the next boom.

More information | Download gadget

Each week this blog features a recently added Google Desktop gadget that looks promising. If you'd like to see all new Desktop gadgets as they're published, subscribe to the RSS feed.

Posted by Kathy Walrath, Technical Writer

The Calendar gadget

We hope everyone had a great holiday season and enjoyed exchanging gifts with loved ones. The lucky ones among us may have been bestowed a 2009 wall calendar for the new year.

If not, don't feel bad — you can always use the brand new Calendar gadget to keep track of your Google Calendar events. This new gadget works on the Linux, Windows, and Mac versions of Desktop gadgets, and it supports all Google Accounts, including Google Apps accounts. Check out the official announcement on the Gmail blog.

The Calendar gadget doesn't come with scenic shots of exotic locations, but it does have a day view mode so you can see what day it is at a glance.



Please try it out and let us know what you think.

Happy new year from the Google Desktop team!

Posted by James Yum, Developer Programs Engineer

The Docs gadget

We just released a neat little gadget that helps you find and open your Google Docs documents. And if you want to upload files to Google Docs, just drag them into the gadget. Please check out the announcement on the Google Docs blog.



This gadget has been well received among Googlers, and we hope you'll like it too. It runs on Linux and Windows and supports Google Apps accounts. Please try it out and let us know what you think.

We've released quite a few gadgets lately (Gmail, Google Docs, YouTube), but my favorite one is coming in January. Mark your calendar!

Posted by James Yum, Developer Programs Engineer