Review: Google Toolbar
There are a lot of search toolbars you can add to your web browser out there, pretty much all of them free and most of them not worth the cost.
Companies like Alexa and MySite give you their toolbars and in exchange you get to become an anonymous (so they say) number as they track your movements around the Internet or worse, turn your computer into an ad server for other users out on the web.
The Google toolbar, currently available for users of Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Mozilla's Firefox, sits below your regular toolbar and offers you constant & easy access to the best and most popular search engine on the planet.
But it doesn't just search, it also:
- Stops pop-up ads
- Shows the current site's PageRank.
- Gives you more information about the current site, such as backward links, the Google cache of the page, similar sites and even translates a foreign language into English.
- Remembers your previous searches, so you can see if anything has changed since your last search for that keyword.
- Highlights & locates your search terms on any web page.
And, yes, it's free and easy to install and easy to remove.
Highly recommended.
Updated: November 18, 2005