• Gadgets. In Windows 7, gadgets go beyond the sidebar: they can be hosted anywhere on the desktop. This makes it easier for gadgets to size a little larger than the default setting in Windows Vista, allowing for a richer data visualization and/or more information to be presented.
• Jump Lists. Windows 7 allows taskbar-resident applications to easily promote a series of tasks. For example, Windows Live Messenger uses this facility to make it easy to quickly set up a chat or web camera conversation without having to navigate through the full application interface.
• Search Connectors. Windows 7 enables you to integrate search of a site like Flickr directly into the shell itself, using a standards-based model for search integration called OpenSearch. An application like Word that uses the standard file dialogs in Windows can then insert images without ever needing to go to the website directly. 
• IE8 Visual Search. Continuing on the same theme, it turns out (!) that the visual search feature built into Internet Explorer 8 uses the same OpenSearch-based model for providing search results. With just a single line addition, any IE8 visual search can automatically support the Search Connector model.

Above: Screenshot demonstrating Windows Live Messenger jump list, barclaycard.co.uk desktop gadgets, Twitter search connector and Wikipedia visual search.

It’s clear that there’s increasing convergence between the web and the desktop. Beyond the search features above, the inclusion of multi-touch and gesture support in Silverlight 3 demonstrates how the lines are blurring. It’s going to get easier and easier to build applications that run great on the web but do even more when they take advantage of the full power of Windows. It’s an exciting time to be a Windows developer!