Google Desktop was a computer program with desktop search capabilities, created by Google for Linux, Apple Mac OS X, and Microsoft Windows systems. It allowed text searches of a user's email messages, computer files, music, photos, chats, Web pages viewed, and the ability to display "Google Gadgets" on the user's desktop in a Sidebar. In September 2011, Google announced it would discontinue a number of its products, including Google Desktop. The reason given was that "In the last few years, there’s been a huge shift from local to cloud-based storage and computing, as well as the integration of search and gadget functionality into most modern operating systems. People now have instant access to their data, whether online or offline. As this was the goal of Google Desktop, the product will be discontinued. Features As of January 2008, Google Desktop featured the following functionality: Sidebar A prominent feature of the Google Desktop is the Sidebar, which holds several common Gadgets and resides off to one side of the desktop. The Sidebar is available on the Windows and Linux versions of Google Desktop. The Sidebar comes pre-installed with the following gadgets: Email – a panel which lets one view their own Gmail messages. Scratch Pad – here the user can store notes; they are saved automatically Photos – displays a slideshow of photos from the "My Pictures" folder (address can be changed) News – shows the latest headlines from Google News, and how long ago they were written. The News panel is personalized depending on the type of news that users read. Weather – shows the current weather for a location specified by the user. Web Clips – shows updated content from RSS and Atom web feeds. Google Talk – If Google Talk is installed, double clicking the window title will dock it to the user's sidebar. Like the Windows Taskbar, the Google Desktop sidebar can be set to Auto-Hide mode, where it will only appear once the user moves the mouse cursor towards the side where it resides. If not on auto-hide, by default the sidebar will always take up about 1/6 – 1/9 of the screen (depending on the screen resolution), and other windows are forced to resize. However, the sidebar can be resized to take less space, and users can disable the "always on top" feature in the options. With the auto-hide feature on, the sidebar temporarily overlaps maximized