Toolbar - what is it?In most cases, a toolbar is like a main menu-bar residing alongside in popular browsers, usually Microsoft's Internet Explorer. The toolbar is termed so because while surfing
net, it provides a viewer many options that aim at bringing focus to and fine-tune browsing. Toolbars of various hues are available free of cost, including one from Google, though there're some like Internet Research Toolbar, who offer toolbars at a cost.
Does toolbar help?
For people who believe information is invaluable, a toolbar is of great help. Nobody denies there is a wealth of information available on world-wide-web. Yet, to many, getting precise information is more often than not a frustrating experience. If you think search engine is only answer to your online queries, think again. The fact is search engines do provide *searching* answers, but perhaps you need some more....something more accurate and relevant. That is to say, you'd need to fine-tune your searches again and again. And this is where toolbars come as great help. Toolbars do not eliminate pain of searching....No, it only assists in cutting down your browsing time so you can devote more time to do what you want to with information collected.
There is a subtle difference in working of various toolbars. Thus, while search toolbars enable searching in your favorite search engines directly, meta search utilities allow searching multiple search engines simultaneously. In today's story, we'll explore about 10 toolbars of repute and *tools* each of them offer. In next issue, 8 more toolbars will be discussed. Hopefully, questions like *Do I need a toolbar?*, *Is there a toolbar for me?*, *Which toolbar offers most?*, etc. will get resolved to one's satisfaction.
Teoma SearchBar http://sp.ask.com/docs eoma oolbar/
Dynamically upgradable (meaning, new features are automatically upgraded), Teoma Search Bar offers direct search results from Teoma search engine. Other than allowing dictionary look-up and ability to highlight search terms (different colors for different words / word combinations) in search pages, Teoma Search Bar also provides for easy e-mailing search page with click of a button.
AskJeeves Toolbar http://sp.ask.com/docs oolbar/helpbuttons.html
Like Teoma, AskJeeves Toolbar too is dynamically upgradable. There are many tools on offer, such as Search Ask (Ask Jeeves search results), Search News (news headlines), Search Weather, Search Dictionary, Get Map (of any location within USA), etc. Highlighting search terms and emailing search page too are available.
Groowe Toolbar http://www.groowe.com/ http://www.pagetracer.com/
Now with version 1.2 (June 4, 2003), Groowe toolbar is proving a popular choice. Query your term fast and easy in many search engines and directories, viz. Google, Yahoo, AllTheWeb, MSN, Teoma, AltaVista and more. Browse categories and directories of search engines with minimum fuss. Image search, audio search, video search --and what not-- are all provided by Groowe as also options to search jobs, downloads and shopping sites. A very helpful toolbar indeed.
UltraBar IE Toolbar http://www.ultrabar.com/
UltraBar offers 3 versions, one free, other two paid versions, namely UltraBar Co-Brand and Ultrabar Private Label. UltraBar has many similarities with Google Toolbar, like highlighting search terms, jumping to selected search term, etc. The UltraBar options is a good tool. One can add more search engines than what are presently offered, and change appearance of toolbar buttons as well.
Yahoo! Companion http://companion.yahoo.com/
Companion allows toolbar to be personalized with one's favorite Yahoo! services and also providing supports like searching Yahoo!, Yahoo! mail alert, etc.
SearchHippo Toolbar http://www.searchhippo.com oolbar/
Meant for IE, SearchHippo Toolbar offers *HipRank*, which is akin to Google's PageRank or Alexa's Traffic Rank. HipRank provides values within 0 to 100 range, higher values for a webpage meaning higher traffic levels. The toolbar allows customization and also offers SMS messaging that permits sending a webpage straight from browser to your friends' phone, pager, or email. SearchHippo says in US toolbar's *SMS* facility automatically converts friends' phone numbers into their carrier and location.
Dave's Quick Search Deskbar http://sourceforge.net/projects/dqsd http://www.dqsd.net/
Dave's QSD is in fact an add-on for Windows Desktop Taskbar, that allows quick search in most important search engines and has useful built-in tools like a clock, calculator, currency converter, calendar, translation facility and more. The toolbar is available at SourceForge under GPL and allows adding own functionality. In fact, HotBot Quick Search Deskbar is based on Dave's Quick Search Deskbar.
Googlebar http://googlebar.mozdev.org/
Mozdev's Googlebar levels playing field in that it emulates Google's toolbar for Netscape/Mozilla browsers. Mozdev also provides emulation of Yahoo! Companion toolbar in Mozilla (http://companion.mozdev.org/).
Alexa Toolbar http://download.alexa.com/
One of our favorites is Alexa Toolbar. Alexa provides search results in Google search engine only, but other toolbar features are quite helpful. For example, for any website being seen in browser, Alexa instantly provides its traffic rank (which in fact is 3 months average). Clicking link will take to Alexa's webpage where more details about website are available, including incoming links, more traffic information and much much more. Another good about Alexa toolbar is its showing links to some more websites that are similar to one being presently viewed. Highly recommended.
