First Look: Google Toolbar 5 for IE

Google's browser toolbar has been a trusted surfing companion of mine for years - blocking pop-ups and giving me easy access to nifty search tools. I hate to say it, but I've grown so accustomed to the toolbar I take it for granted. But with Google's latest update, Google Toolbar 5 for Internet Explorer released this week, I'm appreciating it a lot more again.

For reasons only Google knows, it has released an update to its toolbar exclusively for IE and neglected to update the Firefox version of the Google Toolbar this time around. Google's update to the IE toolbar is not major. From what I can tell most of the new additions serve as hooks by Google linking you to its growing stable of online services such as Google Calendar, YouTube, and Google Product Search (aka Froogle).

One new IE feature, called Google Gadgets, gives you one-click toolbar access to a variety of Google destinations such as YouTube and third-party content from partners like The New York Times. Another new addition called Google Notebook is essentially a Web clipping tool that allows you to collect text and images and save the content to your Google account online. Another new IE toolbar feature, a Web auto-fill tool that automatically populates Web forms, is one that Firefox users have had for some time.

I took a look at Google Toolbar 5 for IE and here are my first impressions.

Google Gadgets

This is the most robust of the new features. Now the IE toolbar includes a link to Google's Toolbar Button Gallery. Here you can pick from dozens of custom applications, or Google Gadgets, in the form of buttons which you embed directly into the Google IE toolbar. They remind me a lot of Firefox Extensions.

Think of these Gadgets as interactive bookmarks. Click on a YouTube Google Gadget and down from the toolbar drops top YouTube videos. Other Gadgets include shortcuts to Gmail, Facebook, and weather reports. Each gadget was optimized for use in the toolbar so content is neatly packaged in bite-sizes and don't interfere with Web surfing. This is very similar to the gadget features used in Google Desktop.

I liked the feature, but found you can quickly add too many on your toolbar to the point your browser is cluttered with Gadgets.

Google Notebook

Think of Google's Notebook feature as bookmarking on steroids. Clicking on the Notebook icon on the toolbar pops up a small box in the bottom right corner of your browser. From there, portions of a Web page can be clipped and quickly added to your Google Notebook.

There are two options for adding content to your Google Notebook. One is when you bookmark a site using the Google IE toolbar (not the browser’s bookmarking function) the URL is stored in your Google Notebook online. The Notebook Clipping feature is more robust and allows you to specify parts of Web page to be saved – be it an image, paragraph of text, or an entire content block. Simply highlight the Web content you want to save with your cursor and hit a little "Clip" button and content is stored to your Google Notebook.

Later you can visit your Google online Notebook to review what you saved.

Other improvements to Google's IE version of it toolbar are really nothing new if you're familiar with Google's Firefox Toolbar. With IE Google ads synchronizing feature you can set up your IE Toolbar just the way you like it on one PC and synchronize those settings with any other Web connected PC running the IE Toolbar.

Bottom line, I think the features added to the Google Toolbar 5 for IE are fantastic. I'm particularly fond of the Notebook feature. One of my few complaints is that Google choose to update the toolbar for IE and gave Firefox the cold shoulder.

What gives Google? No love for Firefox users?

Comments

AutoFill information is now synchronized. Also I think you meant Google "adds synchronizing feature" not "ads synchronizing feature."

librarianscott

December 14, 2007

8:43 AM PT