Widget Watch: Gwidget - a true Google search widget

There are a host of Google search widgets – Mac OS X even ships with one these days. Unfortunately, just about every one of those widgets I've seen simply kicks your search requests out to your default browser, which more or less defeats the purpose of their existence since nearly every browser has their own search field to begin with.

If you've been frustrated by this situation and searching for a Google widget that had the keep-it-to-myself functionality of the Wikipedia widget, widget author Bryan at DashboardWidgets has apparently felt your pain. Bryan's Gwidget is a full-on Google search widget that keeps your search results inside the widget itself (though there is still an option to send the results to your default browser). It can also toggle between searching the Web, Images and News, and it also maintains a list of recent searches for easy access (*cough* Firefox *cough*).

The widget is nicely done, and one of the most functional Google widgets I've ever seen – outside the Frankensteinian Google Browser widget, of course.