Google had launched an official Google Reader gadget for Google Desktop. Basically this utility lets you read RSS feeds from Google Reader without opening a web browser. The interface is similar the web version, with all of your feeds and categories presented in a list.

When you click on an individual feed (or "all items" or a label", you'll see a list of headlines and a first sentence or two. Clicking on the headline will bring up a new window with the more text. Full HTML feeds don't render properly, so if you want to read a complete blog post, news item, or view images or pictures you'll want to click through to open the page in a web browser. But if you just want to quickly scan the latest news, the Google Reader gadget should work.

The gadget works with Google Desktop 5 for Windows and Linux.

[via Official Google Reader Blog]