Google Launches Sidebar, Internet Quakes…

Last night Google announced that they have added a Sidebar feature to Google Desktop. They describe Sidebar as:

Google Desktop includes Sidebar, a panel on your desktop which provides convenient, one-glance access to all sorts of personalized information. Sidebar includes the following plug-ins: Email, News, Weather, Photos, Stocks, Web Clips, Scratch Pad and Quick View. (details on each of these on the Sidebar page at Google)

PaidContent says this could be considered a mini Operating System (OS).

Of course the stock market feature caught my attention (emphasis is mine):

Stocks: Keep track of up-to-the-minute prices for your favorite stocks. The prices shown are the real-time prices (not 15 minutes delayed), if available. Click the stock’s ticker symbol to see the current price, point change, percent change, daily graph, recent news, and other information in the details pane. In Options, you can add, remove, and change the order in which individual stocks and indices are displayed. Stock prices that you frequently look up on the web will be automatically added to the Stocks panel, unless you choose to uncheck the “Automatically add stocks” checkbox. When minimized, all stock prices are shown one after the other on a single line.

Sounds like a shot across the bow of MyYahoo, MyMSN, etc. But it doesn’t stop there, PaidContent points out that Google is planning to launch an Instant Messaging client on Wednesday.

Buried in this NYT story by John Markoff, which touched on Google Sidebar launch (covered in the post below): it plans to unveil on Wednesday a “communications tool” that is potentially a clear step beyond the company’s search-related business focus.
While executives would not disclose what the new software tool might be, Google has long been expected to introduce an IM service to compete with services offered by AOL, Yahoo and MSN. Last year some rumors arose that Google’s IM platform and client would be based on the open source Jabber protocol.
And then, Markoff raises his pet speculation: a Google phone, based on the acquisition of Android and a Google-branded smart phone has long been a pet project of founder Larry Page, and earlier this year Google invested $2 million in a project by Nicholas Negroponte, founder of the M.I.T. Media Laboratory, to develop a $100 wireless laptop.

Hmm, a body-blow followed by an upper-cut? (Remember I am long GOOG) David Jackson at the Internet Stock Blog has listed (at least) four investment implications of the Google Sidebar. According to David Sidebar has implications for CNET, DJ, FWHT, GOOG, IACI, INSP, MSFT, TSCM and YHOO. If you’re involved in any of those stocks I suggest you read what David has to say. Things are getting really interesting in this space…