Google's revamped desktop search launched in beta mode yesterday.
Google Desktop 2 is designed to help advertisers deliver more targeted ads to users.
The company introduced the original desktop toolbar in March to compete with similar desktop search products from Yahoo and MSN.
Google Desktop 2 includes a new “Sidebar” feature, which lists user items on the left side of the desktop, rather than across the top. The personalized sidebar includes people’s new e-mails, personalized news and RSS feeds, weather and stock information, and Quick View, a list of frequently used Web pages and files.
The company also extended desktop search's integration with Microsoft Outlook. Users can search Google Desktop 2 with the Outlook Toolbar and see results within Outlook itself.
“The Sidebar appears [in a way] that it is going to have a more persistent presence, leading users back to AdWords from Google content,” said Will Margiloff, CEO of performance marketing firm 360i, New York and Atlanta. “From the marketers' perspective, it is targeting users at the exact moment they are interested in seeing information.”
Moving the sidebar from the top of the page to the side also benefits advertisers, he said.
“It opens up a greater area for the user to see relevant content and that translates into more interactivity and more targeted opportunities for advertisers,” Margiloff said.
Christine Blank covers online marketing and advertising, including e-mail marketing and paid search, for DM News and DMNews.com. To keep up with the latest developments in these areas, subscribe to our daily and weekly e-mail newsletters by visiting www.dmnews.com/newsletters
