Power of Google Desktop Search (http://desktop.google.com) is already appreciated and accepted by everyone. Recently I came across with a new feature in that, called 'Sidebar', that made me reinstall Google Desktop again on my machine, as I had abandoned it long back, just because I never do vigorous searches on my computer.
Google Desktop now includes Sidebar, a floating panel that gives one-glance access to all sorts of personalized information. This panel can be conveniently placed on the desktop and can be minimized, if we require more desktop space.
There are a lot of tiny plug-in panels that can be added to this sidebar and I was specifically happy with To Do List, Scratch Pad, Calendar, Analog Clock and Word-A-Day. Scratch Pad is like having a notepad open all the time, so that we can key down whatever we want, which will get saved instantly.
May be I will choose panels like Weather, Maps, Traffic, etc. later on when they make it available for Indian cities rather than just US cities.