I've mentioned before how the current Google Desktop has the nice ctrl-ctrl thing to open the quick search box where you bang in a query term and the results appear in a list. You then select one of the results from the list for further perusal and things freeze for 30 seconds before the results appear in Firefox. The computer is still usable, you just have to wait for the results to appear.
I've found someone else moaning about this in the google forums, it appears to be a Windows 2000/firefox 2.0 problem. No resolution yet but I have found that it is possible to use CTRL-ALT-G to select the google query box on the sidebar and then type your query. This is pretty much the same just not quite as quick to invoke. However, when you choose a result from the list it appears pretty much instantly in firefox, as you would expect.
Another workaround is to use IE as your default browser. The third, more pausible workaround is to buy a Mac and use spotlight.
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Peter's Moblog
I noted this problem with Windows 2000 and Firefox 2.0 but also with Windows XP and Firefox 2000.