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The Yahoo Desktop Products team released the Yahoo Search Gadget for Windows Vista this week, the company's only Vista-only product.

The Search Gadget works from the Windows Vista sidebar, bypassing the need to open a separate web browser. Users can access Web search, Yahoo Answers, Local, and Video from the gadget.

Jonathan Strauss of the Yahoo Desktop Products team writes:

Since Yahoo! Search is one of our most popular services, it was a logical choice for our first ever Windows Vista Sidebar gadget. We designed the Yahoo! Search gadget to feel at home in Vista’s new visually rich environment with animations and four shiny colors to choose from.

Ooooh, shiiiiny.

Comments at the Yahoo Search Blog were a little mixed. While some were impressed with the gadget's look and feel, as well with the list of other desktop offerings, others expressed concern that the localized function was limited to US cities.

But the barrier to critical mass at this stage is the same barrier facing Vista. Pre-Vista software doesn't work on the operating system, a detail Microsoft may have overlooked when pushing it out.

On his blog, Simonne Matthew writes:

This is the first desktop toy designed for Vista that I discovered. Yet, I’m not going to try it: I uninstalled Windows Vista one hour after installing it, because I could not find any antivirus to run with it. My digital camera’s software did not work either, nor did my TV tuner’s software. And I’m not going to buy new gadgets only for the sake of a new operating system.

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