Google toolbar settings and functions

In this article we'll look on the different function in Google toolbar. We'll also look on the installation process and how to uninstall the toolbar. There is also a part devoted for the various settings available in the toolbar. The article is quite long so if you're looking for an answer to a specific question we recommend you to use your browsers search function (often CTRL+F).

We'll focus on Google toolbar for Internet Explorer in this article so it may vary some if you are using Google toolbar for Firefox but there should be a lot of similarities.

What is Google Toolbar?

Google toolbar is a small program which adds some extra functions to your Internet Explorer (or Firefox) browser. These functions are added to the browser in the form of a row of buttons:

There are several hundreds of different toolbars available out there all with a different specialty. Google toolbar is a search toolbar; its main purpose is to help you search the internet easier. We have made a comparison between the three most used search toolbars that could be of some interest to you. You can find it here: Web browser toolbars

Installing the toolbar

Start by going to Google toolbar webpage: http://toolbar.google.com. And download the toolbar by pressing the large button "Download Google Toolbar". When the download is completed start the file. You'll then have to go through an installation wizard and answer a couple of questions, the first ones are:

Where the top question is if you want Google to be your standard search engine (Will be used when you press search in Internet Explorer).

The second question is if you want to send data about your activities on the internet to Google.

The last one is if you want to close all open Internet Explorer windows. You should choose this option but make sure that you don't have anything important in your Internet Explorer windows.

After you have done your choices press the "Agree & Continue >" button to go to next part of the wizard.

Here you'll decide if you want to activate PageRank. If you don't know what it is you could read about it further down in the article, but you probably won't have any use for it if you don't create your own websites.

When you have done your choice press the "Finish >" button.

That's all you have to do. If you were successful your Internet Explorer should look like the picture shown a bit up. The toolbars may look a little different depending on language and version.

Uninstall the toolbar

It's really easy to uninstall your toolbar. Begin by going through "Settings" -> "Help" -> "Uninstall" as the picture below shows:

After that you'll come to a webpage that's let you leave a comment on why you want to uninstall your toolbar. You don't have to type anything to the textbox. When you're done just press the "Uninstall the Google Toolbar" button.

You should then come to a Google webpage that tells you that the uninstall process went well. After that you have to restart your browser.

Create a Google account

Some of the functions in the toolbar, like bookmarks, require a Google account. These accounts can be used for a lot of things in Google's website and are free of charge. You can use most of the functions on the toolbar without becoming a member but it's really easy to become a member and the bookmark function could be useful.

If you want to create an account or already are a member just follow the steps below.

Just press "Setting > Sign In" on your toolbar.

If you already got an account, log in here. If you don't have an account, click the link that says: "Create an account now". After that you only have to fill in your email address, a password, the letters in the "safety" picture and press the button to register your account.

If you created a new account you have to check your email for verification from Google. When you get the verification, click the link and you should be logged in.

When you're logged in the "Settings" button should be green.

Google toolbar functions

In this section we'll look on the functions of Google toolbar. We'll go through the most common buttons on the toolbar and how to use them. If there are some buttons that you don't have on your toolbar it probably because of your toolbar settings. Look through the setting part of this page for information on how to customize your toolbar.

Some of the functions on the toolbar, such as bookmarks, require you to get a Google account and login. You could read on how to do that in the beginning of this page.

Search box

When you start to type a word in your toolbar something like this will show up:

Its Google's "suggest" function where Google suggest words that you may want to search for. You can define which fields you want in your suggest box. All three fields are used in the picture above. Here is what each field is used for:

"Bookmarks" is where Google search through your bookmarks and give you suggestions from there. It's only the bookmarks you have saved in your Google account, not the ones you saved in Internet Explorer. More on that further down.

"History" is when Google search through your recent searches to see if any of them match. If you use this function other people using your computer will be able to see what you have searched for. You could solve that by pressing the "Clear History" button in the bottom every time you leave your computer.

"Suggestions" is suggestions that Google get from what other people have searched on. This function can be very useful if you don't know what to search on, just start to type your search words and Google will give you suggestions on what to add to your search query.

When you have decided on something to search for and typed it into the search box you could press the "Enter" key or press the button "Go" that sits beside the search box.

There's also an icon with a four leaf clover that's represents the "I'm feeling Lucky" button from Google's search page. You could use that button to go to the first search result without having to go through the result list.

Next & Previous

These buttons will take you through the result list from you're latest search in Google. If you go to a webpage in the search result list and aren't happy with the webpage you could just press one of these two buttons to go to next webpage in the list or the other button to go to the previous webpage in the list.

These buttons could be used together with the "I'm feeling Lucky" button that is mentioned above. You could then find the webpage you're looking for without even visiting Google.

Add buttons to your toolbar!

This button lets you add more buttons to your toolbar. Pressing it will take you too Google's site where you could download new toolbar buttons. On that website you'll find button from Google but also from other person. Anyone could create their own buttons to add to the toolbar or share with the world.

Pressing the small arrow next to the button will bring up a small list with toolbar buttons from Google that you could install by pressing on the button in the list.

Bookmarks

This button handles your online bookmarks. Online bookmarks are the same as bookmarks in Internet Explorer but they are saved online at Google. The benefits of that are that you could access your bookmarks from any computer. This function requires that you got a Google account.

If you want to access your bookmarks from another computer you could do so either through a Google toolbar installed on that computer or by Google's site: Google Bookmarks

You can bookmark the webpage you're currently viewing by pressing the blue star next to the text. If you press it two times there will be a menu asking you if you want to "Edit this bookmark". If you choose that option you're able to decide for a name on the bookmark. If you don't want to decide the name, Google will use the webpage's title.

You could then go to the webpage you bookmarked by pressing the text "Bookmarks" or the small arrow to bring down a list with all of your bookmarks. In that list is also a button called "Import IE Favorites..." which allows you to add the bookmarks you have saved in Internet Explorer to Google bookmarks.

Pop-up blocker

This button displays the amount of pop-up windows that the toolbar have blocked. Pop-up windows are windows that will pop up from a webpage either when you click on a link or when you enter the webpage. This pop-up blocker will block those windows that pop up when you enter a site. They are often used for annoying ads but could in some cases pose a security risk.

If you click the button once you'll turn off the pop-up blocker for that site and allow the site to display pop-up windows. This could be useful on some sites as pop-up windows could be used for good things as well. Clicking it again will activate the blocker.

Spell checker

Pressing the "Check" button will check the spelling on everything that is written in forms on the webpage. A web form is a text area that can be inserted on a webpage. Web forms don't have to look like text areas normally do in Windows, but you could basically say that it will check the spelling on all text you write on a webpage.

The "AutoFix" will check your spelling just like the "Check" button. But instead of pointing out where you have misspelled and give you suggestions it will fix your misspellings automatically.

"Choose language" will let you choose what language you're using.

The other buttons

This is only a few of the buttons that is available for Google toolbar. We'll describe the use of some more buttons in the customizing part of the article. The function for the rest of them could probably be found on the page you used to download the toolbar.

Customizing your toolbar

To get to the setting window press: "Setting" > "Options..."

You'll then get a window with settings for your toolbar. There should be a couple of buttons, and to some of the buttons there should also be a check box. The check box is used to add or remove buttons from the toolbar. If there are any buttons that you feel you'll never use, you might as well remove them. Doing so will clear up space in the toolbar, that free space could be used to make the search bar a little longer.

Search Box Settings...

We'll start by clicking on "Search Box Settings..."

The first option "Display Go button next to search box" decide if there should be a small button called "Go" next to the search box. The button is used to search, but you could also search by pressing the "Enter" key after you typed in your search terms.

The second one "Open result in new window" decides if your search (those done from the toolbar) should be displayed in the same windows or if it should open a new window for your search result.

The third one "Suggest popular searches" decides if Google should display a list of search terms that relates to the search term you're typing.

The fourth option "Suggest searches from my search history" is similar to the one above, but it decides if Google should suggest searches you have done in the past.

The fifth option "Suggest bookmarks" decides if Google should display your bookmarks in the suggest box. It will then suggest those bookmarks that have a title that match your search term.

Finally you could decide what Google site to use; the country you select there will come up in the search result more often.

Bookmarks settings...

Next option in the setting box is the bookmarks.

Here you'll decide on how your bookmarks will be displayed, alphabetical or in order of when you got them (or modified them).

SpellCheck Settings...

Next one is the spellcheck options.

The first option "Ignore unknown words appearing many times" decides if Google SpellCheck should ignore words that are used several times. That is useful if u are using a name or some other word that Google doesn't understand several times, Google will then assume that you know what you're doing and won't complain about it.

The second option "Ignore words in ALL CAPITALS" decides if Google SpellCheck should ignore words that you write with large letters. It's useful for shortening of words that are written in capital letters, like LOL or ASAP.

The last one, "Ignore words with digits in them" decides if Google SpellCheck should ignore words with digits in them, like 19th.

Translator Settings...

To enable this setting you have to enable the "Translate Menu" option. You'll have to accept that some data will be sent to someone else then Google.

There will appear a new button in the toolbar that will enable you to translate whole webpage's into English. There's also a function that is used to translate single words from English to other language. The languages that are available are Chinese, Japanese, Korean, French, Italian, German and Spanish. You use the function by keeping the mouse pointer over an English word until the translation appears.

AutoFill Settings...

Next up is the AutoFill settings.

When you click on "AutoFill Settings..." you'll get a window where you should fill in your personal information. The information is such as your name, address, phone number, emailadress and a few other things. You don't have to fill it all in, only the things you want Google AutoFill to use.

There is also an option box, it decides if you want Google AutoFill to show you which field it can fill. It will look like this when Google AutoFill finds a field to fill:

When you find a field like that it's just to press the AutoFill button to have the toolbar fill in the fields for you.

AutoLink Settings...

Next setting is for the AutoLink settings.

The first option "Open AutoLinks in new window" decides if the links that Google AutoLink generates should be opened in a new window or not.

The second choice is which map provider that should be used for auto generated links. If you don't know which one is best you could use the one that is chosen.

The third option is where Google AutoFill should get information about books.

The last option is where Google AutoFill should get information about vehicle identification number.

Send to

The last option in the first tab doesn't have a setting button to it. So you can only decide if you want it in your toolbar or not.

Buttons tab

After we are through with the first tab we'll look at the next one: "Buttons". In this tab you'll be able to add custom button, created either by Google or by other users.

In the first field you'll find a couple of buttons that you could add. Those buttons are for the search box and may vary a bit dependant on language and so on. In this example there are a button "Search Sweden" that enables you to search for webpage's from Sweden.

Custom buttons

Below the Google button field is a field for custom buttons. If you press "Add..." you'll come too Google's webpage for custom buttons. There you can download buttons for searching specific sites, for controlling Gmail, Weather information and much more.

When you have found a button that you want for your toolbar it's just to click the "Add to Toolbar" button and the button will appear in your toolbar and in the box above. If you don't want the button any more, locate it in the list above and press the "Remove" button and it's gone. You could also uncheck it in the list.

More tab

The final part of customizing your Google toolbar is the more tab. In this tab you decide on some more buttons and some functionality of your toolbar.

There will be a list of options to decide on, I'll go through them all below.

Search with Google - Decide if you want Google to be your default search engine in Internet Explorer.

Notify me on settings change - Decide if Google should alert you when another search engine is the default one. There are certain spyware that change the default search engine without your knowledge.

Enable Browse by Name in the address bar - If you want to be able to type names in the address bar and let Google find the webpage you want to go to. For example print "ny times" and go to www.nytimes.com.

Enable Popup Blocker - Decides if you want Google toolbar to stop unwanted pop-up windows. Some sites use several pop-up windows which can become overwhelming and really disturbing. Pop-up blocking could solve that.

Play a sound - If Google toolbar should play a sound whenever it blocks a pop-up window.

Hide pop-up count - If you want to see the amount of pop-up windows that has been blocked.

PageRank and Page Info - Adds a PageRank value and three functions (described below).

PageRank is Google's measurement of the importance of a webpage. Ranging from 0 - 10 where 10 is most important. Some new sites may have a low PageRank because Google hasn't had time to update it yet. This is in reality mostly a measurement off the amount of webpage's that links to the site and isn't especially interesting.

Cached Snapshot of Page is used to view Google's "copy" of the webpage you're currently viewing. This could be good if the webpage isn't working right now or if it has been removed. Cached snapshot isn't available for every webpage.

Similar Pages does a search for webpage's resembling to the one you're currently viewing. If you are on a site with information about insects Google will find other webpages with information about insects.

Backward Links does a search for which webpage's that links to the one you're currently viewing. It's mostly useful for the site owner.

Up - Add a button that lets you go "up one level" on the website you're viewing. Pressing the button when you are on "http://yoursite.com/direction/page.htm" will take you to "http://yoursite.com/direction/" pressing it twice will take you to "http://yoursite.com/".

Next & Previous - Adds two button that you could use to go through the search result from your last search. If you do a search in Google, you could enter the first result and go through the result until you find the webpage you were looking for without going back to the search result list.

Voting - It will add two buttons which you can use to vote for a site. Either for the site or against it. Google will use those votes to determine how good a page is.

Highlight - This button will let you highlight the search words from your last search on the webpage you're currently viewing.

Word Find - Will add one button per search word that you type in the toolbar. When you press one of these buttons Google toolbar will search the webpage you're currently viewing after the word you pressed.

Button text labels (All text, Selective text only, No text) - Decide on how much text that should be visible on the toolbar next to the icons. If you choose "All text" it will be easy to understand what each button do, but it will take a lot of space on your toolbar. "No text" will be the opposite; much free space but it could be hard to determine what the buttons does. "Selective text only" lets Google decide where text is needed and where it could be left without.

Send usage statistics to Google - Decide if you want Google to receive information about you as you surf the internet. Google will use it to make the toolbar better in the future.

That's everything from this article. Any other function you're wondering about should be described here: http://toolbar.google.com