MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--Google announced on Wednesday an update to its Google Desktop product, as well as several new products designed to enhance information gathering on the Web.

At its annual press day here in the Googleplex, the search giant took the lid off Google Desktop version 4, Google Notebook, Google Trends and Google Co-op.

The new version of Google Desktop lets people use mini-interactive applications from within the product's Sidebar without having to download software or open up a browser, said Marissa Mayer, vice president of search products and user experience.

Mayer led a demonstration in which a song icon was dragged and dropped atop a media player, causing the song to start playing. Similarly, a video clip, titled "Laughing Babies," was dragged onto a player, launching a clip of a mother holding a gaggle of giggling babies.

"Nothing like a biological clock right there in your Sidebar," Mayer joked.

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