Personal Technology -- Google Wants to Be Your Best Friend On Your Computer

Personal Technology -- Google Wants to Be Your Best Friend On Your Computer: "That is the aim of two new, free products the search giant released this week. One is an instant-messaging program called Google Talk, intended to be your primary means of real-time digital communication. The other is an information-management utility called Google Desktop 2, designed to become a permanent part of your desktop, grabbing space from Microsoft's Windows desktop.
I've been testing pre-release versions of both new products, which only work on Windows PCs, and have found that both work well, with a couple of exceptions. More important, both products, especially Google Desktop, have great potential for expansion and are meant to become indispensable.
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Still, Google Desktop and Google Talk are useful programs that have great potential. They just might make Google your new best friend, and that would be bad news for Microsoft."

(BTW sorry for the sparse posts during the last couple days -- on the road with an awful hotel Internet connection again...)