Webware

The Google Media Server gadget can send audio and video from a Windows PC to another device.

(Credit: Google)

Google has released a software module that can turn Windows PCs into devices that streams media files to other devices.

The Google Media Server is a gadget that works on the Google Desktop software. It sends the data to other devices over a Universal Plug-and-Play connection such as a Sony PlayStation 3, according to the Google Desktop blog.

With it, people can play videos and music and view photos on a PC. In addition, it can connect to Web sites including Google's YouTube for video and Google's Picasa for photos.

Google has been pretty busy in the past few days. There have been changes or tweaks to three of Google's product offerings, as well as the unexpected resurgence of one product that many thought would never return. We've broken the news down for you below.

1. Google Answers is back--in Russia. I guess Google figures Russia to be an inquisitive bunch, since it's re-launched its defunct (read: dead) Answers service there. According to a post from Google Russia's blog, it's the first country to get the service, despite the fact that the previous version was fairly similar. In the newly revised Russian Google Answers, users can spend points to ask questions. Other users can then answer those questions for a chance to earn points. The service keeps track of who is answering the most effectively, which differs vastly from Google's original inception that charged users $2.50 a pop to even ask a question. [via ZDNet]

2. Google Maps gets multi-stop routing. This new feature in Google Maps lets users set intermediary stop points along a route. Doing so changes the turn-by-turn directions on the left side of the map. People are going to love this if they're trying to plan a multi-stop trip, a service that was once relegated to travel agents or a visit to the local AAA office. Elinor Mills over at the News.com blog has a great write-up on the new feature here.

3. A lot of people are using iGoogle. This past week Google unveiled usage statistics for every gadget in use on its personalized homepage service iGoogle. The service aggregates this data a couple times a week, and refreshes it for all to see in Google's gadget directory. Anyone can now see how many users have added it to their iGoogle page, along with how many page views it's gotten. What's the most popular gadget so far? Google doesn't have a straight top 10 list, but the Wikipedia search-and-go widget has well over a million active users.

4. Linux users get their own version of Google Desktop Search. Linux users who have long felt left out of Google's free, system-wide search tool are in luck. The company released the Linux version this past Wednesday. Unfortunately, it's not the full-featured app with widgets such as PC users are currently enjoying. Instead, it's a slightly stripped-down file search, akin to the Mac version released a few months ago.

One of the key benefits of using Google Desktop rather than the search functionality that ships with Microsoft Windows XP is its speed and online functionality. Vista has improved the built-in search, but for XP users, Google Desktop is a powerful search tool that does a much better job at helping you find things, even if they're online. This morning, Google released a version of its Desktop search client for the Mac operating system. Sure enough, the release has a lot of people asking why? After all, Macs have been shipping with Spotlight, OS X's built-in system-wide search since early 2005. What could possibly make this worth installing when a search function is already installed at an operating system level? We decided to give it a go with a Mac laptop lying around at CNET Labs, to see if it's worth using.

Search is managed with a widget that displays results.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Google Desktop installs quickly and will index everything on your computer's hard drive in a few hours depending on how many files you have. Also included in the indexing process is your entire Gmail account. Not included is data from other Google services such as Groups, Calendar, and Docs & Spreadsheets. The app is managed entirely in system preferences, where you can set which drives it should index, as well as files or folders you don't want it to look through.

To search for something, hit the apple key twice in brief succession. This will pull up a widget that you can type your search query into. Results come up as you type, and pop up at about the same speed as on Spotlight. It's also worth noting that if you don't have Google Desktop running, the keyboard shortcut won't do anything.

One thing that Google still insists on doing is using a Web browser to display full results; only a few will pull up a few in the search box. If you don't already have your browser open, Google Desktop will launch it, which is kind of a pain. If you're looking for e-mails or Web pages, this can be handy, but for local system files it just slows down the process. Spotlight is much easier to work with, pulling up a detailed results box as part of the application.

Google Desktop for Mac is a solid download, despite the fact it requires users to be running OS X 10.4 (which has Spotlight search built-in). Mac users who don't have 10.4 yet have likely been using tools such as Quicksilver and Launchbar to find and launch applications, files, and media. The Gmail integration is neat, but we would have liked to see them add integration with the rest of its office suite to make it a compelling alternative to Spotlight.

Google Desktop's indexing options. You can configure Gmail integration here as well.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Basic program setting menu. Here you can configure things such as keyboard shortcuts and the quick search box.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Taskbar integration. Unfortunately there's no way to do a search right from the taskbar, unlike Spotlight.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

The results page. Here you can see complete results from a search, split up by file type.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

In a keynote speech this morning at the 12th annual Cyberposium at the Harvard School of Business, Marissa Mayer, Google's VP of search products and user experience, addressed various media headlines that suggest that the company's recent product announcements and purchases are all over the map. Not so, says Mayer. In the course of an hour, she laid out four areas that Google has deemed to be important--more content, easier computing, personalization, and better search--then demonstrated how various Google products currently fit into each bucket:

More content
--includes Google Book Search, Blogger, YouTube, and Google Earth

Easier computing
--Municipal Wi-Fi, the Google Pack download, Gmail, Google Bookmarks, and Google Docs & Spreadsheets

Personalization
--Google personalized home page, Google Gadgets, and Google Desktop

Better search
--Google Notebook and Google Custom Search

Of course, when someone lays it out for you, it looks pretty obvious, but until now the four buckets were kind of a mystery. Mayer hinted that more products are being designed or sought for each category and also suggested that more integration among existing products might be possible. Stay tuned.