Add Google Toolbar

Google is widely recognized as one of the most powerful companies on the Internet. It’s easy to see why. The ease-of-use found in Google’s search engine and accompanying search features has revolutionized the Internet and the way it works. One of the big reasons that Google has proven so useful and so innovative is that they never stop developing new products and services for their customers. One of these products is the Google Toolbar, which is intended to bring the power of Google to any browser instantaneously. Encompassing most of Google’s excellent features, and designed to integrate into most browsers on most PCs, it maximizes the pull and power of a well-run Google account.

In its modern iteration, the Google Toolbar is intended to blend seamlessly with Google products such as Google Docs, Gmail, and YouTube. While the primary function remains search, and the toolbar permits easy and fast searches, and the toolbar is capable of searching for websites based on keywords and can even offer popular sites as they are typed in, there are many other features. The most popular browsers now all have search integrated into them, and so Google has worked to ensure that their toolbar does much more than just search!

One of the biggest features in the Google Toolbar is the ability to drag-and-drop to share links with persons in your Google Contacts list. This list is built automatically by your Gmail and Gchat accounts, and can easily be sorted and narrowed down using key words or the frequency which a they send and receive e-mails from you. The Google Toolbar allows for links to be e-mailed or sent via Gchat directly to any person in your Google contacts list. It is also possible, with a single click, to store the website for later viewing, even offline. This is particularly useful for persons on the go, since they can download and save a website while they are connected to the internet, and then read it later while on a train, airplane, or other location that lacks an internet connection.

The Google Toolbar also includes an innovative feature known as “Sidewiki.” This permits users to enter information and comments concerning a site, which is in turn passed on to all Google Toolbar users. Like the famous online encyclopedia Wikipedia, this information can be edited and updated by anyone, permitting web users to know vital information about a site before they ever log on. This is ideal for users who are browsing around for key bits of information or looking to find new blog sites, as it ensures that they are not distracted by advertisements, biased pages, or poorly written articles. It also helps reveal the presence of malicious sites, since pages with malicious content are flagged in the wiki.

The Google Toolbar also has Google Translate integrated into it, permitting instantaneous translation of most of the world’s predominant languages on the fly. This is very useful for persons who need to visit sites in Europe, Japan or China, although the translation is somewhat imperfect. When combined with the Sidewiki function, it is often possible for multilingual persons to provide enhanced translations beginning with the Google Translate feature, making the content of the page more accessible. Google is constantly improving Google Translate, and “proper” translations of some pages, done by volunteers or paid professionals, are integrated into Google Translate and will be used when available.

The Google Toolbar is free and can be installed on all browsers. It is most at home in Internet Explorer 6 or higher, preferably Internet Explorer 8. This is because Internet Explorer lacks many of the search, save and cache features that the Google Toolbar has. Firefox and Chrome users will find that much of the functionality of the Google Toolbar is redundant, specifically the search and autofill features, but the toolbar remains useful thanks to the inclusion of Sidewiki. Users will also be glad to find out that their Google Toolbar settings are linked to their Google account. This means that regardless of how many computers they install the toolbar on, all of their links, settings and contacts will appear whenever they log into the toolbar on any computer. This compatibility extends across all platforms and all web browsers.