Windows users should check out Dave's Quick Search Deskbar (freeware), which does entirely too much useful stuff to list all of it here. It exists as a small textbox in your taskbar which allows you to search Google (or over 100 other useful functions) and it will launch your browser of choice and display the results.

Especially nice, is how it can display the date/time when it is idle, removing the need for the clock in the system tray (which won't display the date unless you have your taskbar 2 lines high). The Quick Search Deskbar is one seriously cool tool.