Google-creep to the desktop

Google's Press Day presentation had to be frustrating for Microsoft and Yahoo. They've already been doing some of the same things.

The expansion of Google Gadgets, now 159 mini-apps strong, puts more on your PC's desktop.  Yahoo already has Gadgets, but they're called Widgets, and seems to get little credit for it.  Microsoft also has "Gadgets.".

The Redmond, Wa. company must see Google's announcement as another way to change how we see and use our PC's desktop, previously hallowed real estate owned by Microsoft.

"We tend to think of a PC as the holder of all our data," said Danny Sullivan, editor in chief of SearchEngineWatch.com.  "Google is enticing us to a world where our desktop is virtual, our desktop is kept with Google, and our data is kept with Google."  The next step is to put applications which work with this data, like Writely, "and you don't use an operating system or have to fire up Word," Sullivan said.

Sullivan said he also would expect Microsoft and Yahoo search developers to wonder why they don't have their own Press Day.  "They would probably like some of that love, too.  I suppose they are a little perplexed why Google's getting all this attention for (some of the same) stuff they're already doing."

The editor in chief of SearchEngineWatch.com also said Google Trends, which lets you compare the popularity of search terms "is really a fun tool." (It certainly has been for Steve Rubel.)  But there's a practical side to it.  "Search views are these great barometers of what people are interested in, and now you have the ability to tap into it," Sullivan said.

Listen to the conversation with Danny Sullivan.