I’m a big fan of Quicksilver, the versatile application launcher for the Mac. I recently decide to try out Google Desktop for the Mac which is a product similar to Quicksilver and Spotlight. And I was quite impressed. Here’s a complete list of features. The feature that really impressed me was the integration with the web browser. Now, whenever I run a Google search I also get results from my local machine on my browser. Google Desktop searches through my mails and my web history as well. I find that useful.

Head to the Google Desktop site and click on the Install Google Desktop button. Download the application. Once the download is complete launch the installer. You will get the following message. Click on Continue.

Then proceed with the installation of the application. Click continue a few times, and then pick where you want to install it.

Once the installation is complete you can begin using Google Desktop by invoking the default hotkey — Cmd + Cmd (hit the Cmd key twice). A neat looking window containing a search box will pop up.

Customization of the Google Desktop is handled through a pane in Mac OS X’s System Preferences. Using this configuration, you can do a whole bunch of changes to Google Desktop’s behavior. You can change the keyboard shortcuts, and control how many documents are listed in the results.

You can integrate searching with your GMail account, or your Google Apps account so that your mails gets added to the Google Desktop index. On the tab titled Indexing in the Google Desktop configuration pane click on the Configure Account button and enter your GMail or Google Apps username and password.

Now that you have configured Google Desktop time to take it for a spin. Hit the Cmd + Cmd key combination to launch the application. Now search for something. The results of the search will drop down immediately. This includes searching all your local data, your browser history, the web, your mails, even your GMail account if you have configured it.

Google Desktop has also been very smartly integrated into your web browser. Google up something. You should most likely find a new entry containing results from your Google Desktop search as part of your search results.