Information Addicts

Google Toolbar has been out for quite a while, and I have never really been that interested in trying it, as I thought it was just another gimmicky toolbar for my Firefox browser.
How wrong I was, this toolbar is feature rich, easy to use, and has many options to personalise to your every need.
The Google toolbar can be used with Firefox or Internet Explorer version 6 or higher, and is very easy to install. After installation, the Google toolbar will appear under the Internet Explorer or Firefox toolbar.
Google toolbar has many features and the one I am going to start with is the search facility.
Google’s search box has more options than the Firefox offering, what’s more you can replace it by clicking on settings > options and then click on the layout tab, then choose ‘Replace Firefox Toolbar’. This also saves on space.
When you type a word in the search box, and click on the down arrow you have the option to search for images, groups, news, froogle, and other categories. The only downside is that you can only search using Google and none of the other search engines, however most people only use Google anyway.

Google toolbar has many buttons which lead to some great content, from games to stocks and shares, what’s more you can add or remove as many as you wish.

Click on the news button and Google opens up a webpage with the latest news, if you click on the down arrow next to the‘Top Stories’ field you have the option of news from anywhere in the world (over 40 countries). Also on the same page at the left hand side under the header ‘Top stories’ you have 8 news categories to choose from, which range from world down to entertainment.

There is a Spell checker button which checks the spelling of text you type on any web form, you can also add another spell checker button which when clicked, opens up a new page, and if you type in a word, not only does it check the spelling but you have the option of Thesaurus, Dictionary and Encyclopedia.

Click on the Gmail button, and after you enter your username and password you have access to your emails. You can also add buttons to access Hotmail, Yahoo mail or AOL mail.

The Page rank button is not very accurate, but if you click on the down arrow next to it you have the option to find similar pages, or there is a backward link option that searches websites that link to the one you are currently viewing, which can be very handy.

Auto fill button will automatically fill in your details on any webpage requesting it, with your name, address, email, credit card details, and more, but all is optional.

The Word Find button lets you type any word into the Google toolbar search box, and when pressed will find each occurrence of the word on the current web page. Every instance of the word will be highlighted. This can be very useful.

I could go on all day about the features and options of Google toolbar, but I would recommend that you download and install it. You can then see for yourself how useful this toolbar is.

As I wrote earlier Google is very customisable, buttons can be added to access Google Calendar, Google Video, and Google Finance. What’s more, there’s an online gallery containing a large number of additional buttons that people have created.
You can download Google Toolbar from this link.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008 at 7:59 am and is filed under PC Software. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.