Google updates Toolbar

Posted on 30 Jan 2006 at 10:27

Google has introduced a beta of version four of its popular toolbar application for Internet Explorer. The new version develops the idea of customisation further by allowing users to build their own buttons, tap into the search on other sites and improved bookmarking.

Naturally, among the features that Google provides as additional buttons are a number of its own functions. A couple, like 'Blog This' and 'News' have been available for some time, but now additional features such as 'Images' are also included. Oddly enough one button that is not available is Google Reader, which organises blogs and RSS feeds. Google does say that users can create their own button to Reader.

The toolbar also allows users to bookmark their favourite sites as a button on the toolbar and provide one click access. This feature is already familiar to Firefox users but will come as a welcome addition for Internet Explorer users. To save information from a page that changes frequently, users can also send an image of the page they are on to their Gmail account. However, the tool does not extend to the kind of community bookmarking pioneered by del.icio.us - the social networking site recently bought by rival Yahoo! which allows people to recommend and share their favourite sites.

An interesting extension of the toolbar is the ability to use the search box to query the search on other sites. Right clicking on the site's search box creates an XML-based feed which can be used to deliver search results directly into the browser. Google will be providing preset search options for a number of sites but says that any site can opt to be included.

An Enterprise edition of the toolbar is also available with features to allow central customisation and management.

The new toolbar is available for Internet Explorer only. Google is not saying officially whether or when version four will be ported to Firefox, or Linux and Mac OS browsers but we can assume that they will be appearing in the near future.