RSSYahoo Refreshes Firefox Toolbar
By David Worthington | Published July 8, 2005, 4:20 PM
Just one day after Google launched its toolbar software for Firefox, Yahoo has brought rain to Google's parade, releasing a refreshed build of its own Firefox toolbar.
Yahoo's Firefox toolbar replicates many of the features it already offers customers using Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser such as an integrated search box, content discovery, a RSS subscription manager, protection against spyware and server-side preferences that can be recalled from any PC connected to the Internet.
In addition to its baseline functionality, the toolbar has tie-ins to My Web. My Web is a customized search page that layers editorial content on top of standard aggregated search results and saves Web pages and queries so that desired content will not be lost.
While the products are similar in many ways, Google's toolbar does have some distinctions from Yahoo including a built-in spell checker, auto fill functionality for forms, a translator and Google AutoLink which maps street addresses.
Google routinely referred customers to the open source Googlebar project before it ported the software from Internet Explorer to Firefox, while Yahoo provided mainstream support for Firefox.
Firefox can offer advanced features even without a toolbar being installed. The browser has an extensions architecture that takes up where Mozilla developers left off. Extensions are add-ons developed by third parties that provide the browser with additional functionality. Likewise, Firefox already offers a pull down search menu that lists both Yahoo and Google.
Yahoo has made the toolbar available to Firefox users on the Windows, Mac and Linux platforms. The software is available for download at FileForum.
I don't really like toolbars but I do like corporate competition and this is a good start to get back to something we lost a long time ago. So way to go Google and Yahoo!
Firefox is becoming something companies feel safe now investing time in for development. I just dream of the day that big companies will get back to that on items we actually have to pay for just so the competition can drive down the prices and up the quality.
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|YAY!! I can now search Yahoo! within FireFox...err wait I could already....oh nevermind
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|To those who rail against toolbars-- i agree w/ that premise, but there's always an exception-- in this case it's not just about the search-- there are tons of useful & can't do without features there...so many, that i'm even willing to put up w/ the initial bugs that slowdown FF-- the chief knock against installing toolbars.
OK, so on FF popup blocking's not needed, & let's say AutoFill neither(i use RoboForm)... but for me: up one directory/level, search within site(yes, you can also type that w/ your search term, i know!), find / highlight words on a page, page info, blog this, translate by just hovering mouse over a word, autolink(this is outstanding, too many features to describe here for it: look in its Options at everything it does for you-- just type one address & see everything you get besides the expected)... are indispensable. Add other features there i don't care for: speel chek, etz.
But even ignoring everything above-mentioned-- just the search box features: autolink, saving search history, auto-fill / auto-complete it, auto-start the search by just clicking a previous entry in dropdown, open search in new tab, etc., etc.
BTW One other toolbar i use: A9-- for the cashback on purchases at Amazon.
And speaking of FF: i don't know about y'all, but Opera's speed's about to win me over....
Google's gonna own the world: we can either join this people-power revolution, or remain paranoid & solitary Don Quijotes flailing at imaginary monsters that only turn out to be harmless(but useful & necessary) windmills...
Paz (use Google Toolbar translate for this word )
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|Obviously I agree .Toolbars serve a purpose : to facilitate access to the Internet. Maybe they are not palatatable to some people; however where were the computer geeks when , as I indicated, some of us were writing programs in C++ To us Dos 6.2 was a mirage . Windows was science fiction,unless you had a Mac.These "children cannot understand the evolution in computing"much less than their parents (me included ) why man was on the moon. Progress it is called.Columbus may have been questioned of his quest.
I am an older man, I have seen most of last century. I saw the man on the moon. What I wish to convey is :For the most of us suffering from arthritis and othe debilitating diseases toolbars are a wonderful tool for communicating.
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|Tool bars do nothing more than add to a browser more junk. If you have anything that makes it hard to type then use bookmarks and your life will be better for it. Tool bars are for young children that don't know better or for people that have no idea how to code and you sir are mistaken or a liar. That is my opinion!
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|bookmarks, hard to type, search, huh?!
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|I was being general.
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|Normally I agree with you, but I gotta say, that not all toolbars are useful/useless to everyone. I don't use any now that XP/2003 both have popup blockers in IE, but previously I used Google. My family uses MSN's frequetly because they are MSN subscribers.
I'm a firm believer in the idea that people can, should, and will use the software they like for their needs... and if people spent more time learning about those options and taking advantage of them rather than ranting about how bad the ones they choose not to use are, the world would be a better place.
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|Excellent points. I agree.
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|Funny, Google releases a new toolbar for Firefox.........and then Yahoo does. Yahoo has bee following Google around for the last few years. Kinda funny.
I'll stick with Google thanks :)
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|Yahoo had the toolbar first on IE then Google released one. Then Yahoo had a toolbar on Firefox and then Google released one.
Now Yahoo is refreshing there old Firefox toolbar with new features to counter Googles thunder is all. They arnt releasing the toolbar for the first time just bwecose Google did. They did it first.
But it dont mater cuz as was said already on this subject, we all switched to Firefox to get away from this BS. Both the Yahoo and Google toolbar are a bunch of bloat and useless crap and Firefox comes with a Yahoo and Google search box as standard anyway.
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|Yes... but feature-wise, Yahoo is now playing Simon Says...even though they got started years before Google...
I'm not ranting vs Yahoo(they're way improved under latest CEO's leadership).
Google toolbar is necessary & useful bloat-- Yahoo toolbar, if improving in the minds of some, is still useless bloat.
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|Why do people still use tool bars, is my question? They are 100% pointless and slow you down. I still use Yahoo Search most of the time, but tool bars are for people that don't know how to type. IMO
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|It's not that I can't type, it's that i'm lazy as heck. It's faster to click , click and you're where you want to be.
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|I use a bookmark for that, located right below the address bar. Click, and up pops google.ca
It's easier than using one of those stupid toolbars with the tiny search boxes.
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|I use that as well.
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|Actually, this is old news... I've had version 0.5b for about 2 weeks now. Yahoo did not "refresh" their toolbar, it just took forever for it to be reported.
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|There is little Google has to offer that makes me even consider any of their properties. Yahoo! has held my attention since 1997. I keep checking on other portals, but they just don't have it all like Yahoo! does.
The toolbar is just part of the whole experience and superstructure that helps me everyday. It used to be that accessing Yahoo! bookmarks (saved online, accessible anywhere) was the key justification for allowing a toolbar in my browser. But now there's adding pages to My Web 2.0, quickly saving RSS feeds to My Yahoo! pages, and configuring customizable buttons to where I need to jump quickly.
It's all there. Yahoo! Yep.
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|i hate yahoo
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|o... k... and I hate google. So what? Now that we have that out of the way.... on to smarter conversations...
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|Didn't we all switch to FireFox to get *away* from this crap??!?!?
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|well no one's forcing you to install the software.
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|Actually I liked having the toolbars, they add extra function. I switch from IE to Firefox because.......well frankly... I hate IE, can't put my finger on an exact reason but I just don't like it.
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|You switched to Firefox to get away from toolbars...?
And no, we didn't all switch to Firefox, there are other browsers *gasp*.
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|Firefox has extentions that are just as functionable and more than a toolbar and the extensions aren't SPYWARE!
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|And again. Firefox has extentions that are just as functionable and more than a toolbar and the extensions aren't SPYWARE!
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|Very good point!
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|Functional?
And, actually, extensions can be made 'evil'...
the thing that's really ticking me off about them, is that because they can be made by anyone, they're not 100% reliable...I'm exhauxted from troubleshooting which one's conflicting with which...
If FF doesn't do something about that, it will be its downfall-- Opera waiting in the wings, ready to supplant....
And getting FF without extensions is not the answer, not long term for its continued success vs competitors, it needs a lot more features to compete....
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|I'm sorry, but you're a prime candidate for the Google Toolbar-- it's spell check function in particular:
F-U-N-C-T-I-O-N-A-L
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|Damn dude are you drinking or something? As with anything you find what works for you and use it. FF and the extensions have hardly any that conflict and I really think that you have either not tried it or are just talking out your backside. Again my opinion.
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|Key word there "extensions" not just on extension that adds all of that functionality. I find it annoying going from page to page (and guess what more pages) to find all those extensions to get the functions that guess what.....a single downloadable tooldbar can add.
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|damn, I'm glad someone finally mentioned opera. The only sucky thing about it is that yahoo doesn't come as an integrated search, but it has to be added manually. Now that Opera has built in BitTorrent, it's going to 0wn
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