Google releases new browser Toolbar

[Ringr]

Search engine giant Google has started distributing the beta version of its new Toolbar through its website besides including it in a special Google pack of software.

The new Toolbar's features include customizable buttons which allow a user to search any website even if he/she does not know its URL. The Toolbar offers a gallery of about 60 buttons to choose from in this version but as it allows you to create your own buttons, blog administrators, web designers, developers and content creators could personalize it by creating hundreds of buttons.

Just right clicking on a search box on any website will create a custom button. The new XML application-programming interface allows one to create more advanced buttons.

The Toolbar can update with new feeds and features site-specific search and Web-based bookmarks with which users can store their favorite websites.

It includes an enhanced search box and allows users to send Web pages either via email, blog or text messaging. A user can bookmark a website, saving it onto his / her Google account and access it later from any other computer. It even spellchecks - i.e. it offers corrected spellings to facilitate searches.

The product appears to be an effort to match Yahoo's and Microsoft's Toolbar offerings. Yahoo's Toolbar has many similar features except one that Google doesn't offer: anti-spyware. Microsoft's product has the same set of features.

Along with this version, Google released an updated enterprise edition which allows company administrators to operate the software from a single point. This edition also enables the user organization to custom create buttons.

The new Google Toolbar is also being shipped with Hewlett Packard's computers and Sun Microsystem's software.

The version runs on Windows XP and is compatible with Internet Explorer currently. The company plans to release a version for Firefox browser very soon.

Found here.

 

[toughguy]

Thanks for the info..

 

[slaughterbeck]

It’s a Google world and we’re all just living in it.

 

[sm]

the custom buttons feature is good one. ..... now if they only offer a toolbar API .. that would be the coolest thing to happen. Wouldnt mind having nearly about everything on a single toolbar.. a button for yahoo mail, a button for checking whois records, another one for custom RSS feeds ....

 

[holeinone]

Here's Another version from directi.com

Google Toolbar Gets Personal
30th January 2006

New beta versions of Google Toolbar for IE offer custom buttons, online bookmarks and an open API; also offers toolbar for enterprise environment.

Google Inc., today announced the latest version of Google Toolbar for IE and Google Toolbar for Enterprise.

The new beta versions of Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer are open and customizable, with new features that enable users to customize their search experience and share information. The new versions now offer customizable buttons, online bookmarks, enhanced search features, new sharing capabilities and an open API. Google Toolbar for Enterprise beta also includes administration and control for business environments.

Google offers users three ways to get custom buttons. Customers can create their own custom buttons by simply right clicking the search box on any website and selecting 'Generate Custom Search'. They can install a Toolbar button offered on one the websites. Or, they can select ready made buttons from Google's new Button Gallery. The new version of Google Toolbar also enables users to create, label and manage bookmarks for their favorite sites with a single click. Bookmarks are now saved to a user's Google Account making them accessible from any computer.

Google is also offering a new version of the toolbar for enterprise environments. Google Toolbar for Enterprise beta includes all the new functionalities of Google Toolbar, offering the same level of personalization and customization to corporate users. In addition, Google Toolbar for Enterprise includes group policy for administrative control of features, as well as Microsoft System Installer for easy corporate deployment.

The beta versions of Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer and Google Toolbar for Enterprise for Internet Explorer are currently available in English and will be offered globally in more than 16 languages by the end of the quarter. Both versions of Google Toolbar run on Windows XP and support Internet Explorer 6.0 and higher.

 

[sm]

cool ... so it seems they are offering an API after all.....

 

[aznchong91]

where do you get it?