Web browser toolbars

2006-08-09 | By: A. Lundgren | Comment on this article

In this article we'll compare three toolbars that increase your Internet Explorer functionality. Two of the three toolbars are also available for Firefox but the functions may vary some.

The toolbars main purpose is to give you the ability to search the internet from any page. But they offer a lot of other functionality that could be useful. They are especially useful if you're using the services from the companies that have produced the toolbars.

What is a toolbar?

The toolbars mentioned in this article is a small program that adds extra functions to your browser. There are several hundreds of toolbars available out there but there are several of them that contain spyware and other programs that may hurt your computer. So don't install toolbars that you don't know anything about. The toolbars mentioned in this article comes from three of the absolute largest companies on the internet so their toolbars should be safe.

Install them at your own risk!

The toolbars

Google toolbar

Yahoo! toolbar

Microsoft Live toolbar

The comparison

Below is a table with the comparison between the toolbars. Under the table you'll see an explanation to the functions. Even further down the page are a small summary of the functionality and links to where you could get the toolbars.

¹⁾ - IE=Internet Explorer, FF=Firefox.

Available in - What browser that are supported by the toolbar

Spell check - A function that checks your spelling when writing in forms on the internet. Good for writing emails and to leave comments on blogs.

Popular searches - A function that suggest search words while you're typing. The suggestions are based on what other people have searched for.

Bookmarks - A function that enables you to use the same bookmarks on different computers.

Auto fill forms - A function that automatically fills out a form for you. Define things like name, address and email one time to have this function fill it out for you the other times.

Translate - A function that translate pages, or selected text into English.

Pop-up blocker - A function that blocks unwanted pop-up windows.

RSS feeds - A functions to subscribe and read feeds from the browser.

Phishing protection - A function that protect you from pages that are trying too steal your information. Not always on as default, check help if uncertain.

Email - A function for accessing your email and getting mail notification. Require a mail account from their service.

Tabbed Browsing - A function that allows you to open several pages in the same window.

Share page - A function that allows you to send a link to the page you're viewing to your friends, using email, IM or SMS.

Save page - A function that lets you save the whole page you're viewing so that you could read it later.

Customization - A function that lets you download new buttons to your toolbar too increase its functionality.

Summary

The toolbars in the comparison all offers a whole lot of extra functionality to Internet Explorer browser. And they are especially useful if you're using one of the services from the three companies (Google, Yahoo! or Microsoft Live).

If you're not using any of the services and only looking for a toolbar to be able to search direct from your browser I would recommend Google toolbar, as it offer the most functionality. Especially spell checks, translation and phishing filters. But if you're using one of the company's services you might as well use their toolbar.

Below is where you could download the toolbars and find more information about them:

If you can't decide on one to use you could use more than one, you could even use all three of them at once:

But that's not recommended.