They’ve just posted the announcement on the Official Google Blog about the Google Gadget Contest, in which you write a new gadget for Google Desktop Search 4. The search utility just came out of beta, and they’re offering up to $5,000 for you to create a gadget.

If you’re going to make one, post about it here, and tell us about it. We’ll help you to promote it, since the #1 criteria for winning is Popularity.

More information on the contest reveals the 2nd place prize of $2,000 and 3rd place of $1,000. Even if you don’t win a cash prize, you’ll get a Google Desktop Developer T-shirt. I already have one for making a GDS plugin in JavaScript, and it’s really cool. They run small, though, so you might want to ask for the next size up. Medium fit well for me.

There’s a visual GUI designer for gadgets that you can try using. I recommend giving it a try. I won’t have time for it this summer, but if you’re looking for something to do, definitely give it a try and tell me how it goes. I’ll help you if I can.

Google previously posted about the contest on the Inside Google Desktop blog. There they noted that the contest is only open for the next month; the deadline is July 31. Ramblewords posted about it also. Winners will be posted to the Inside Google Desktop blog on August 21, and Google says that participating in the contest will look good on your resume when you apply to work at Google. Take a look, and post a comment here.