This feels like a departure from Google’s usual approach. On desktop, Google has historically pushed everything into the browser, especially Chrome where they enjoy massive market share. Aside from some experiments in the 2000s like Google Desktop, they have not really released native Windows apps in the past decade.

Mobile is different, Google has plenty of native apps on Android and iOS. But on desktop almost everything has been browser based such as YouTube, Gmail or Docs. Personally, I would love to see something like a native YouTube Music app similar to Spotify instead of being locked into a browser tab.

I think part of this shift comes from the pressure of modern native apps like ChatGPT’s desktop client. With a quick shortcut like Alt+Space you instantly open a search/chat box, that kind of OS level integration is not possible with a browser or even with PWAs.

So while this might look like a small product announcement, I see it as a bit of a paradigm change for Google.

I still use Google desktop on a dedicated computer to search our local network. Its been running since about 2008.

It also probably started as a hedge for the divesture from Chrome that DoJ was seeking.