Google Toolbar 4 (Beta). It’s New!
I’ve been giving the newest version of the Google Toolbar a spin and it has some nifty new features that I like.
Having used the Google Toolbar from the time it was introduced, I’ve come to rely heavily on it for quick internet searching but the unexpected bonus that has come with using it turns out to be impressing lawyers and staff! Often they’ll ask me some really simple question (though they don’t know it’s simple) and they’ll watch over my shoulder while I find their answer. Being able to quickly find their answers using the Google Toolbar has given me instant credibility (if there had been any doubt – these are lawyers I’m dealing with, after all, and they tend to doubt everything and everyone) and even more so after they have me install the toolbar on their own computers and give them a little training session. Some of them think, at first, that it’s the Google Toolbar that is the magic but soon enough most of them realize that it’s HOW you use the Google Toolbar that is the real magic, further enhancing my credibility when they find they can’t make it work the same way I can. *tee hee*
• My favourite past Google Toolbar features have been:
• The Lucky button. Mostly this impresses the lawyers who come to my desk and are looking over my shoulder while I find what they want. They can’t believe I can get to a site so fast!
• The Search Canada button. Not a perfect filter but still, very helpful much of the time.
• The Search Within a Site Button. I often find this works better than the site search features available at many web sites.
• The Highlighter and Word Find buttons. These are the main reasons I can barely function without my Google Toolbar and again, another big selling feature for those lawyers who are looking over my shoulder.
• The Pop-Up Blocker.
New features that I really like are:
• The Google Bookmarks button. I love the way this works and it is much better than using Favourites with Internet Explorer. You can tag the web pages that you bookmark and you can use as many tags as you choose. It has a nice, clean look about it, too.
• The Send To button. This is super handy for those of us who do a lot of reference work and even for sending information to myself for safe-keeping. You just highlight the part of the web page that interests you and click the “send to” button choosing either Gmail, Blogger or Text Message.
• The Enhanced Search Box. I think I’ll like this more as I get used to it. As you type, suggested search terms and phrases show up in the drop box below. The recommendations come from your own search history as well as popular Google searches and spelling corrections.
• Custom Buttons. I already use several buttons, some of which are mentioned above but now you can choose (or make) any button that might serve your unique preferences. There are a host of buttons you can choose from a list. I added, for instance, Google Define and Google Scholar but there are already buttons you can select for news, tech, shopping, games, entertainment, etc. I also chose the weather button which was easy to customize for my own location and includes a drop-down forecast which is very handy. One complaint about it, though, is that it displays in Fahrenheit and I can’t find a way to configure it for Celsius. Most of the world uses Celsius, doesn’t it? *harrumph*
The other thing I like about this new Google Toolbar is that it recognizes that there are privacy issues and, with that in mind, when you download the toolbar it defaults to secure settings. If you choose, you can log in or out of your Google Account right from the toolbar. Logging in allows further flexibility and some enhanced features such as being able to view your bookmarks from any updated toolbar on any other computer.
There are other features that might be of interest to you. Check them out here.
Welcome to Slaw in fact, Heather!
Too bad the latest version isn’t ready for Firefox (Mac) yet.
Hi Heather:
Thanks for this summary! Does it still have the “Blog This” (orange “B”) button? I use it extensively for updating my Blogger-based personal blogs. (From home anyway; downloading toolbars on our office computers is verboten without special approval.)
Cheers,
Connie
Thanks for the welcome, Simon. Yes, unfortunately Google’s dragging their heels on recognizing the high use of Macs and Firefox. Still, I like this thing and it’s IE that we use at the office.
Connie, yes your Blogger button is still there. Even better is being able to highlight what you want on a web page and then being able to “send to blogger”. I think it’s improved for blogger purposes, don’t you? I, too, use the Blog This button for blogging on our family huddle blog but I haven’t tried blogging to it yet with this new toolbar. It’s on my list of things to try soon.
Cheers!
Sounds great! Thanks, Heather. Will see if I can load it on at home. Don’t know if I’ve talked about it here, but the Google Toolbar I downloaded was an early version with a known bug, not allowing the toolbar uninstallation without changing the computer register (which is a REAL PAIN). I believe installing the upgrade, however, may be possible.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has a warning out that’s sufficiently important that I’ll quote the piece in its entirety. You must be careful how the toolbar is configured: read on…
From http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/02/10/google_desktop_privacy_kerfuffle/
EFF issues Google Desktop warning
By John Leyden
Published Friday 10th February 2006 15:36 GMT
Google has released a revamped version of its desktop search tool which introduces the ability to search the contents of one computer from another. Previous versions of the tool indexed files on user’s PCs, but using the optional “Search Across Computers” facility in Google Desktop 3 temporarily stores text copies of searchable items on Google’s own servers for up to 30 days.
Even so, privacy activists such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) have said the feature “greatly increases the risk to consumer privacy”. It describes the facility as a gift to government snoops and a convenient “one-stop-shop for hackers” who’ve obtained a user’s Google password. Users should avoid using Google Desktop 3, it advises.
Google argues that the growing use of multiple computers by users makes the feature useful. “Too many people are working across multiple computers now,” Google vice president Marissa Mayer told USA Today. “This makes their lives easier.”
In fairness, Google does acknowledge that the tool involves a trade off between functionality and security. That’s a compromise Windows users have been stuck with for years, you might think. But even before the search engine behemoth was subpoenaed for search information by the Department of Justice, Google’s latest desktop revamp would have raised eyebrows. The EFF, for one, is adamant users shouldn’t trust Google with the contents of their personal computers.
“Unless you configure Google Desktop very carefully, and few people will, Google will have copies of your tax returns, love letters, business records, financial and medical files, and whatever other text-based documents the desktop software can index,” EFF Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston said. “The government could then demand these personal files with only a subpoena rather than the search warrant it would need to seize the same things from your home or business, and in many cases you wouldn’t even be notified in time to challenge it.”
Plus
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4700002.stm
and the original
http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2006_02.php#004400