Browsers

• General
• Search toolbars
• Missing pages
• Internet Explorer
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Evaluating sites

Mass media

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Reference

Glossary

Search Toolbars

     A significant enhancement for searching the Internet in recent years has been the development of search toolbars that can be added to a browser. Such toolbars are small programs that a user typically downloads from a Web site. After installation, the toolbar usually appears in the browser near the top (between the window in which a page appears and the browser's own toolbars). 
     Unfortunately for users of other browsers, Microsoft's Internet Explorer appears to be the only browser with which most search toolbars will work. Here is an illustration of how IE looks with the Google toolbar, which was named Best Search Toolbar in Search Engine Watch's 2003 awards.

     To use a toolbar, you need only to type a search term in the box to the right of the word "Google" as illustrated below.

Hitting the Enter key or clicking on the Search Web icon will initiate a Google search just as if you had gone to Google's Web site. If you were connected to a specific Web site, you could use the Search Site option to conduct a search only on that location. The next three icons to the right initiate other searches through Google. Clicking the rectangular icon will search Google's database of images; the head with the cartoon-like speech bubble will delve into Google's newsgroups; and the icon that looks like a newspaper will take you to Google's search of news stories. All of these features are available through Google's main page; the toolbar just makes using them a bit easier.
     Google's toolbar also offers a popup blocker to keep out those pesky ads that appear when you go to so many Web sites. That feature is indicated by the "923 blocked" icon. The toolbar will keep a running total of how many ads it has blocked.
     I won't go into all of the Google toolbar's features, but let me mention some of the other icons visible above. Clicking the folder icon will take you one level higher on the current Web site. Using it is equivalent to deleting one level of directories, which you will read about in the "Missing pages" section. Clicking the highlighter icon will cause your search term(s) to be highlighted wherever it (or they) appear on the page in your browser.
     Finally, clicking the Options icon will allow you to select which of the toolbar's options you want to have in effect. Those options are also available from a drop-down menu that appears when you click on the word "Google" at the left end of the toolbar.
     More detailed information about the toolbar's features and their use is available at About Google Toolbar Features on Google's Web site.
     Caution: A few of Google's options, such as Page Rank, send information about pages you visit to the Google site. Such information should be used only for aggregate data, but if you are uncomfortable with passing this information along, you should review Google's privacy policy before deciding whether to activate those options. The search options themselves have no such issues.
     You can download the Google browser toolbar at http://toolbar.google.com/.

     Warning: Not all toolbars are helpful. Beware of anything along this line from a company or Web site that you do not recognize as reputable. Some disreputable companies even have toolbars that will install themselves without your knowledge. 

More Browser Toolbars

     Other general search engines and indexes also provide toolbars for browsers. Here are a few of them.

Ask Jeeves

Download address: http://sp.ask.com/docs/toolbar/

Dogpile

Download address: http://www.dogpile.com/info.dogpl/tbar/

MSN

Download address: http://toolbar.msn.com/

Yahoo!

Download address: http://au.companion.yahoo.com/