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Yahoo! Releases Firefox version of Toolbar
kidlinux writes "Yahoo started offering a beta version of its toolbar for the open source browser Firefox on Microsoft Windows on Wednesday, with versions for Linux and MacOS X following 'shortly.' I think it's safe to say most people use Google in their Firefox toolbar search field. Yahoo probably wants to get their foot in the door before it's too late. It would be interesting if this was a result of user demand. And apparently this follows Amazon's Firefox toolbar, which actually is a result of user demand."
I'd much rather see them take the effort to redo the SBC Yahoo! browser that's shipped with their DSL. My mother for example, prefers it over just a regular service because of it's interface.
$
Everyone knows that Firefox is a great tool for the community (well, everybody who uses Firefox, anyway). What the Firefox people should try to in their marketing, though, is by showcasing how their openness can help corporations. If such toolbars could be easy as hell to make, a lot of companies with an online presence out there would be willing to give it a shot. Good for the company who has an easy way to search their products, good for firefox for being the middleman, good for the consumer who wants to search those products, and no harm to everybody else since you don't HAVE to install the toolbar...
Firefox already blocks pop-ups. And it takes only two mouse clicks to change from google search on the default configuration to a yahoo search. And it is worth noting to myself that I have *never* been tempted to do so. So I'm not going to download it. Probably rings true for most geeks out there, at least.
If my answers frighten you, stop asking scary questions.
In case you didn't know there's a significant amount of people who like Yahoo more than google, who have their homepage set to yahoo, and use yahoo mail.
It seems this is oriented (along with the Amazon toolbar) to the non-IT end-users flocking to Firefox that thing it's just another IE clone. At least the ones I support have no idea what the little bar at the top right does or that they can add engines. - Brad
Exactly. Yahoo needs to improve its search engine before if puts effort into, of all things, an inferior Firefox search bar.
Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so. Bertrand Russell
When cleaning up customer's computers, the Yahoo toolbar is on my list of things to uninstall. I find that most times users have no idea how it got there. I replace it with the google toolbar.
It seems to me that the google toolbar is there to help the user find information whereas the yahoo toolbar is there to promote yahoo and it's many services.
Humor from a Genetically Molested Mind
Oh great, now half the reason that I use FireFox is gone. Yahoo! comes out with this great toolbar that sucks down my viewing area and my bandwidth. I'll bet that it's also pretty big, unlike the normal (unsponsored by any company) FireFox extensions...
Let's see, Firefox already does the first two, and the third is arguably useful. The "anti-spy" feature doesn't seem all that useful for Firefox, since it's not easy to accidentally install spyware via XPI. I think Gator has more useful features. Am I missing something?
I found the IE google toolbar to be more useful than the one that comes built into Firefox. Wish they would add in all that extra functionality... I remember trying out a beta version of it for FF and coming away a little unsatisfied. However, the overall advantages of using FF vastly outweigh the few and insignificant disadvantages.
Like previous posters have said it really adds no functionality to Firefox, but I guess it adds another endorsement to Firefox's already long list of supporters. If nothing else then all the diehard Yahoo fans will now be even more exposed to Firefox and may perhaps make the switch. But what I really wonder is, what's in it for Yahoo? Is this a last attempt to be revitalize their popularity?
Please do not let scientific accuracy interfere with the intended humourous/interesting/insightful value of this comment
Given the higher popularity of Firefox among the tech-savvy crowd, and the ongoing boycott of Amazon for their "one-click" patent:
How could the demand among the more tech-savvy crowd result in an Amazon toolbar for Firefox?
Not that I'm trying to start a flame-war. It's just resulting in some cognitive dissonance in my over-taxed brain.
In the past, the main reason I have avoided Yahoo is simply because of all the ads. They slowed down the search to a crawl, and I could barely find any content amongst the ads.
:)
The toolbar 'screenshot' convieniently cuts off the end of the bar... is this to hide ads and other crap? Or are we spared?
Either way, I think I'd prefer to just add Yahoo to FireFox's in-built search engine bar. Not that I would use it... since I have Google!
But seriously, Yahoo seems to be going in the right direction. The engine seems to have increased in speed lately. In fact, search results are as quick to load as on Google. What's more, the number of ads on the results page has decreased; just a few textual ads remain.
In fact... Yahoo is looking a lot like Google.
Now I wish Netcraft would write a version of their toolbar for FireFox.
I agree. What can this toolbar do that Firefox cannot already do or existing extensions cannot already do?
Web search? Check. Email? Check. RSS feeds? Check. Popup blocker? Check.
Oh wait, there's one thing Firefox doesn't have: Yahoo Personals, Shopping, Games, Music, and whatever crap is there that I don't want.
overall it seems pointless but at the same time it does add to the momentum of Firefox being a real contender. I would rather yahoo do something useful like fix Launch so it works with Firefox.
Snowden and Manning are heroes.
yup, i install an open-source, highly configurable browser and then install some creepy malbar that will hijack the whole goddamn thing.
no thanks, yahoo. thanks for playing.
I've been using the unofficial version (http://companion.mozdev.org/) for some time now, and it actually works almost exactly the same. The official Yahoo one seems to work just about perfectly as far as I can tell.
What would really like to see is the ability to have your Firefox bookmarks synchronize with your Yahoo bookmarks automatically, so that you could have them wherever you go.
Additionally, I wish it would highlight the search terms like the Google toolbar.
Thank you, my point exactly. If you want to buy a dress, while on a date with a fresh hot single in your area, then get this toolbar I suppose.
Great to see many companies endorsing Firefox and supporting it!
But if the toolbars are not opensourced, then I will not touch them. Sorry to sound like a troll.
The significance I think which is going unnoticed is that someone thinks it is worth it to support something other than Internet Explorer. Perhaps, this can spread?
I don't practice what I preach because I'm not the kind of person that I'm preaching to.
Though Yahoo says the toolbar is for Firefox on Windwos, it works well on Firefox for Linux. Why won't Yahoo say the toolbar also works on Linux? We'd help them iron out the bugs if any. I have not found any problems so far on either platform.
Now /. just has to get rid of that constantly duping timothy and it might be OK. Although where's the story about lokitorrent.com?
I think it's safe to say most people use Google in their Firefox toolbar search field.
Geez, I didn't even realize Yahoo was in there... I just click it down for eBay or Dictionary.com when I don't use Google... I guess my mind kind of filtered out Yahoo... scary.
any questions?
To me, the only useful thing Yahoo has to offer is Yahoo Groups, chiefly because in its pre-Yahoo phase (as Egroups), it was great and had really useful lists, and despite Yahoo royally f(*&%ing up this service since they bought it, it manages to continue to be okay.
Other than that, Yahoo search/news/whatnot... all suck pond water from the bottom imho.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
Click on the G on the search bar a choose Yahoo. Done.
You can download more search engines for the FF search field, but Yahoo is installed by default. For instance, I regularly switch from Google to Amazon and Wikipedia. I also have a German dictionary installed.
However, I think it's good that Yahoo is making a FF toolbar. It's just a sign of Firefox's acceptance in the market--that's a good thing.
But isn't the point of the toolbar really for searching, etc? The google engine covers more sites, and is just a superior search engine overall. You might prefer Yahoo Mail to Google Mail, that's your preference. But when it comes to a raw search engine, In my opinion google is better.
Call me when Yahoo Launch! works on firefox. Till then, I'm pretty much not interested in Yahoo.
Drop me a line at:
Key ID: 0x54D1D809
I use it for the bookmarks, which are then common on any firefox or IE computer with the toolbar, but it also has shortcuts to useful Yahoo! tools like briefcase, calendar etc.
We use Free Software Because it's FREE(As in Free Speech). There are many things that are said to be "Linux friendly", but are not really GNU or Free Software Friendly, This is Propietary software. It's not different nor better than a bar made for IE. We want Free Software, not software that runs on Free Plataforms, if it's not free, it's the same. This kind of stuff really bothers me, because The purpose of GNU/Linux is pretty obvious. We want Freedom of knowledge and information. The GNU Comunity has released gigabytes of quality Free Software, and then some company thinks they have the right to release little pieces of propietary software to work in combination with that system. They have the RIGHT to develope and distribute privative software, the same way we have the right to write and distribute Free Software, but, For obvious reasons, it's not ethical to distribute propietary software that's specifically made to run taking advantage of free software, and to trick people into using it as part of a free program, while this plugin is not.
No intention to flame, i just cam to think about it.
ALMAFUERTE.
WTF am I doing replying to an AC at 5 A.M on a Friday night?
I know they'll be releasing versions for other platforms soon, but why on earth would something like this be platform-specific?
I actually don't use the search field built into Firefox. I find it to be horrid from a usability point-of-view. I don't understand why they didn't follow the way Mozilla handles searching.
In Firefox you have to move your hand to the right, click on the small text bar and type in the search term, which also annoyingly stays there until you manually clear it. It also wastes space; there's no need for a second text box. (I mention moving your hand right because you can feel more stress on your tendons than moving the cursor to the URL field, which requires moving your whole arm forward instead of twisting your wrist.)
In Mozilla, you click on the URL field, type in your search, press the down arrow and hit the return key. If you're opening a new tab/window first, you don't have to grab for the mouse at all because the URL field is already active. It's just a much more efficient process than the one in Firefox.
It really sucked when they had their jackbooted thugs kick down my door, hogtie me, and install their extension.
Even worse: for some reason I can't uninstall it!
Oh the humanity!
--
the strongest word is still the word "free"
Has it occurred to anyone that the only reason Yahoo! might release a search bar could be so that the lack one can't be used against them? I know this sounds stupid, but hearing a user say "I use Google instead of Yahoo! Search because Yahoo! doesn't have a toolbar" is a likely reason enough for Yahoo! to release an inferior search toolbar. Just so they can say they have one too.
It's a feature contest. Neither one wants to be the one with the less features.
Aero
Yahoo! -- Now with more stupid, poorly-written, inferior features!
Sidenote: I am a regular Yahoo! Mail user.
Please stop hurting America -- Jon Stewart
I mean yahoo! Spy/adware for the rest of us!
Actually, I don't think Yahoo search is that far behind Google search, other than the number of pages indexed.
I find that for many searches, Yahoo will give more relevant results.
Competition is good.
This isn't about providing a service to existing users, many of whom are, on average, probably a little more savvy than the average internet user. It's about getting new users who are used to using IE.
1. Firefox begins marketing efforts to showcase how easy it is to create toolbars for their browser.
2. Company that offers online shopping learns that it's a cinch to make a toolbar for their own company for Firefox. They figure, what the hell, and do it, and put a little link on their webpage saying that Firefox users can download this toolbar.
3. Person who knows little about Firefox goes to this company's website to do a little product browsing.
4. Person sees the link for the toolbar, thinks what the hell, and downloads Firefox to check it out, then downloads the toolbar.
5. User tells their friends how they like that Firefox has a toolbar for a company's website that they frequent.
6. Company now has a marketing method through people's browsers. Firefox now has a new user. And people who know about ctrl-l, or don't care about the above-mentioned company, don't have to bother getting the toolbar if they don't want it. Several winners, no real losers.
seriously, I read this YESTERDAY on gnews. wtf.
Two things google has going for it over yahoo... first is the main page - google is just what you need, no extra crap. Second is the search results - both google and yahoo have "sponsor results", but where yahoo places them above the "real" hits, google places them off to the right so you don't even have to skip over them visually to get to the meat. Much cleaner interface all-around.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
One of the best features of the yahoo toolbar is the bookmarks. When you add a bookmark on the toolbar it is saved to bookmarks.yahoo.com and avail. on all computers you have the toolbar installed on. This is a great way to keep your bookmarks synchronized between multiple computers, say your work and home one. I find this feature invaluable and welcome the feature in Firefox.
Who uses the Yahoo toolbar? I do, since its inception. I like the single-click to the My Yahoo page I've been tweaking since the late '90s but the biggest reason I use it is centralized access and maintenance of my bookmarks.
I use the Google toolbar, too. I almost immediately install both when I starting using a new system, though if real estate is scarce, I'll skip the Google toolbar. Having the Yahoo toolbar available on Firefox removes a big roadblock to using Firefox regularly.
Is there a point to these toolbars that I'm missing?
I visited a relative recently who is running Windows and IE still, and who had no less than 5 different "toolbars" on their browser.
Frankly, I don't see the point at all. I haven't seen a single thing that any of these toolbars add which bookmarks and the built-in search field in Firefox don't, other than a whole lot of useless clutter. Indeed, most Winndows/IE users I know who have all of these bars installed don't even use them (and often don't remember how they got there).
So is there a point why anyone would want these toolbars in the first place? They look like useless cruft at best, and spyware and advertising vectors at worst.
Yaz.
I use yahoo mail... i find it pretty good. some spam, but i have used it alot... i get almost as much spam with hotmail which i haven't really used at all.
but i think that yahoo have stuffed groups recently, yahoo groups were pretty good initially (i presume this is just after taking egroups?).
Guess I'll google it to find out what it is :-)
am I the only one who doesn't see the point with this toolbar? I mean im sure there are programs which inform you that there are messages in your inbox, and you can set your default search for yahoo (in the little search box to the right of the address bar (default of course)) I mean, what else is it going to add? Popup blocker? -- already covered.. quick search? -- already covered -- Link to Yahoo news? -- Maybe a google news quicklink on the bookmark toolbar... imo, its just a waste of programming time, and space.
It works on Linux now too, I am using it right now.
The preceding message was based on actual events. Only the names, locations and events have been changed.
With a Yahoo toolbar for IE and Firefox on both Windows and Linux, it's actually been very handy as a bookmark manager. I use it to manage a single set of bookmarks on windows at work, my laptop, and my linux deskop.
This does add functionality to Firefox. Now all my bookmarks that I have stored with Yahoo! can follow me anywhere I sign in with the yahoo bar. I dual boot with win xp and debian. I use both IE and Firefox in XP and only Firefox in Debian so this will make it easier to keep my bookmarks up to date across the browsers.
The preceding message was based on actual events. Only the names, locations and events have been changed.
I agree. What can this toolbar do that Firefox cannot already do or existing extensions cannot already do?
You're right, there really is no functionality that the Yahoo toolbar adds to Firefox that's not already there (or available as an extension). But that's not why this story is important.
Microsoft's IE has had such a stranglehold on the browser market since the demise, resurrection, and crapification of Netscape that other browsers were not even on people's radar. Companies with formidible online presences only coded for IE, since that would effectively reach something like 99% of their potential audience; the other 1% using a different browser, such as the intrepid folks on Slashdot, probably didn't even want the product the company was offering anyway.
Fortunately for the internet population, Microsoft's strategy of "ease of use is more important than security" backfired, and their browser was eventually poked full of holes, exploited, and overrun with online annoyances. The next time someone came along with a browser that was both easy to use and secure, the public embraced it. Again, as luck would have it, the first people on the scene were open-source advocates: people with a firm grasp of software architecture, security, and standards adherance.
This story is important because it is Firefox's first foray into the mainstream. We geeks have been championing Firefox for some time now, and the fact that companies with worthless products are integrating with FireFox is a Good Thing (tm). It means that we have a sizeable enough market share to warrant some coding time and money.
For security, the MD5 hash of this message and sig is 09f911029d74e35bd84156c5635688c0.
Won't this kick the door open for spyware faster than if Yahoo didn't release it in the first place?
This is great news! I used the Yahoo toolbar extensively with MSIE solely for the bookmark management. It was the easiest (for me) to use in maintaining bookmarks across multiple systems.
I've had to go without it because the web browsing experience using FireFox was so far superior that it outweighed the usefulness of the Yahoo! toolbar.
Perhaps I'm the only one on the planet that used it, but now I have the best of both worlds.
I rely heavily on Yahoo Companion/Toolbar. And I have for several years now.
The most useful thing is the Bookmarks button. I can have my bookmarks in a simple drop-down on any machine I want.
Furthermore, I can access my Mail, Address Book, Calendar, and Notepad extremely easily all from within the bar. Along with 2-click/1-http-request away from adding/editing any of the above.
Finally, all of the info is cross-populated. That is, I can create a Contact and assign them a birthday and it will show up in my calendar. I tell Yahoo my favorite sports teams and the schedules/results show up on My.Yahoo.com and in my calendar. It's exceedingly easy to email (or evite!) anyone in my contact list individually or as a mailing list.
And I can do all of this via this one simple toolbar.
Basically, Yahoo is the one company that 'gets it' when it comes to PIM. So don't write this off as 'just a search bar.' It is sooooo much more.
why woud a firefox user ever use RSS via myYahoo? It's already built into my browser, I don't need a protal for it.
Changa hates change.
this is a test ;)
Please ignore.. just testing something. I know, OT. Sosumi!
The funniest thing about this thread is all of the posts from the Yahoo employees masquerading as /. users. Every anti-yahoo post has 2-3 pro-yahoo posts countering it. And they all read like advertising for Yahoo (although I'd rather read a Yahoo ad than listen to one of their commercials with that yahoo yodelling their name).
I have both the google and the yahoo toolbars. I use google for searches and yahoo for bookmarks, and the mail notification in yahoo toolbar is nice.
Where is that cool article-on-whatever-I-was-reading that I want to show a buddy or a user on their computer? That's right, I go to http://bookmarks.yahoo.com, log on and viola! there it is...
Awww... my firefox search bar has yahoo in it... how did that get in there? :/
:)).
Does anyone use yahoo these days? I thought it was only usful for school kidies (as its what i used to use
Giving IE users a taste of their own medicine since 2005 - http://pods.-is-a-geek.net/
OK, just installed in on OSX as well, seems to be workin just fine, not sure what the OSX version "Coming Soon" will have, but this is working sofar. Hundreds of emails in an abandoned yahoo mail account to check, will be trashing it later, but it does work. P
-- My dog can beat up your dog.
Since FF is open source, they could have just created their own branding of it ("Yahoo Explorer"?) and packed their toolbar with it. But I'm guessing they want to ride the firefox wave.
I think this will be a good thing. And encourge other sites to be standards compliant.
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
Wonderful. Look at what they did with the Linux version of Messenger, they released it with minimal features and have been extremely slow in updates or feature additions. Based on that performance I have a hard time believing that Yahoo is going to do anything wonderful with this toolbar on the Firefox/Linux version.
. Quit playing Monopoly with Bill. Switch to one of many non-Microsoft products today.
Has anyone else checked out the A9 toolbar terms of use and privacy policy? Talk about scary.....
What would your browser look like if you downloaded all the toolbars and enabled all of them?
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
Um.. tried the Yahoo search page - as opposed to the main portal page?
the mozdev version, that is. It seems to work well for me. I have access to the parts of Yahoo that I want with one click. I appreciate the fact that they provided a link from their site to mozdev for those of us who wanted the toolbar.
BTW, I still mostly use Google for searching, too.
Always look on the briight side of life! (whistle, whistle)
See subject
sigs are a waste of space
I used to use Yahoo Companion for bookmarks as well, until I discovered a Firefox extension called 'Bookmarks Synchronizer' which works just as well, without the bloat and wasted screen real estate of another toolbar.
Ok I have a button to Yahoo's Launchcast, but no support.
Yahoo's Launchcast is great, But why oh why do I have to have two browsers open in order to listen to Yahoo's music?
Artist will always make art.
I don't care about the search function, but, for me, the Yahoo! toolbar is essential to inform me of incoming mail. At this moment, Gmail doesn't work with my cell phone, so as long as this isn't supported, I stay with Yahoo! Mail.
"I think it's safe to say most people use Google in their Firefox toolbar search field."
No it's not. I actually hate it. Somebody obviously thought it would be a good idea, but couldn't think of a good place to put it. It's too small. It's stuck up there on the right when most people's focus (esp. left-to-right readers) starts at the top left. This is an even bigger issue on larger higher resolution screens. Let's be honest, it's just crap.
I install Mozdev.org's Googlebar. It works much better, although I tend to hide all the annoying icons.
I just installed the www.latitudezero.org extension. Words great. Thanks!
Peter Buergner, Dave Viner, Brian Kennelly and a host of others have created an excellent alternative for folks who like the functionality of the Yahoo! Toolbar but prefer Firefox/Mozilla. The current version (0.54) is a bit out of date - a new version should be hitting the servers soon. It is much further along than the official version, with full internationalization support (including Chinese), disposable address support for Yahoo! Mail, the ability to remove the Search Box (a function the official version has apparently removed from both the IE and FF versions) and a few others.
I've looked at the official source code and it's nicely written - probably a bit cleaner than ours, truth be told. We've had quite a bit of discussion on the mailing list about adding features not found on any of the official toolbars (including dynamically folding the Yahoo! bookmarks into the Mozilla/FF bookmarks, the ability to redirect menu selections into new tabs, and a bunch of other stuff). Recent "nightly" builds (more like weeklies, but hey...) have included about:config support for some optional functionality.
Most of us on the Companion team are happy to see official support for Firefox by Yahoo!. It shows that FF is really gaining traction, and will help a lot of Yahoo! users to migrate to the FF platform. Hopefully, most the of the newbs will use the official version (saving us some headaches on the mailing list), and when people want to step up to a more feature-rich version, they can upgrade to our version. One thing the team has been very concerned about is making sure that our version works on all Mozilla platforms, and in both Firefox and Mozilla Suite. Early word is that the official version works best on Firefox on WinXP - there seem to be minor problems using it with the Mozilla Suite, alternate themes and non-XP platforms (the code is all generic Javascript, so I expect those issues to be easily fixable). Our 0.54 build has some issues in Linux due to an improper set of permissions added to a directory it creates to store the Yahoo! feed. This has been fixed in the nightlies, or you can fix it by modifying the permissions of the yahootoolbar_saves directory in your Firefox profile (chmod 666 should do it).
Of course, our version could end up dying in the shade of the official version, but that's competition for you!
p.s. I know a lot of /.ers prefer the Google toolbar, but lots of us have already invested a lot of time in the Yahoo! version and don't feel like switching. Besides, Yahoo! as a portal (currently) has a lot of things Google just doesn't provide - I track my portfolio there, have a My Yahoo! portal page with a lot of localized content, like the quick links to my local sports teams, etc. And, at this point, you've at least got to give Yahoo! credit for being the first to officially support the FF platform (though I have a feeling Google is going to come on very strong, given the recent hiring of Ben Goodger.)
I don't know about you, but I find the search button available for Firefox to be all that I need.
I've installed additional search features to scan for IMDB entries, Dictionary.com and eBay.
Not saying Yahoo! search bar is a bad thing, but the reason I don't like some extra plugins is they take up another line of space at the top of the browser - lean is key!
It's been pointed out that this toolbar works fine on Linux; of course it does, since it's written for the browser. People are asking why Yahoo! didn't acknowledge this on their download page, and the answer (probably an accurate asessment of Yahoo!'s thinking) is that there may be bugs and they don't want to get a flood of complaints. I don't buy this.
For too long companies have had the power to provide information for unsupported users (read: Linux) but have avoided this for fear that it might be construed as rendering them liable for problems. Why? Why not just include a disclaimer like "We are told that our toolbar works on Linux, and you are welcome to try it, however Yahoo! has only actively tested the toolbar on Windows and cannot guarrantee its functionality on other operating systems. If you use the Windows toolbar on Firefox for Linux and have a complaint for our Yahoo! toolbar developers, go impale yourself on something and leave us the hell alone." Who would read such a disclaimer and then complain to them about bugs? It's about time companies start volunteering information, drivers and other helpfulness. With disclaimers in place there's no reason why they should continue to be exclusive.
Let's see, Firefox already does the first two, and the third is arguably useful.
Er... so how do I add RSS feeds to My Yahoo! with Firefox again? Oh wait, I can't.
My Yahoo! is a pretty powerful portal (you have probably never really tried it). I much prefer it to Google news.. it is highly customizeable, I can integrate RSS feeds from anywhere, I can add my own personal calender and to-do list that is synched with my desktop and PDA automatically, it has quick access to my photo album, my local TV listings, the local movie showtimes.. all on one page. It is incredibly useful.
Their Yahoo! toolbar will probably also have a few other things Firefox can't do out of the box, like new mail notification for Yahoo! mail, notifications for calendar events, and possible Yahoo! IM integration.
All that aside, I won't be installing it. But don't dismiss it as redundant so quickly, you haven't even seen it yet.
And for God's sake, don't compare it to Gator, the spawn of Satan.
I'd tell you, but my browser window isn't big enough to see your entire post.
Freedom: "I won't!"
crapification
I have learned a new word. Thank you, sir!
ok, i get in IE haaveing a toolbar (popup blocker and searching). However, with fire fox you don't need it. in the tool bar you can set it to search Yahoo just as easly as you can set it to search creative commons. Fire fox also has a popup blocker. i would like it if someone could expalin to me the reson for a Yahoo, or any kind for that matter, tool bar?
The search box in Firefox has many many engines other then just google. Yahoo (including it's many subdomains) has always been an option, even in the beta days. Visit mycroft.mozdev.org/quick/yahoo.html to add Yahoo! to your search box - no need to download and install anything from Yahoo...
I prefer to add Yahoo (and other more specialized search thingies) on the MyCroft search bar. It avoids the clutter that all those fancy toolbars add. I have a good dozen different search engines (including Yahoo) in Mycroft, and NO clutter whatsoever in my toolbars. Firefox is just amazing.
I like my dinosaurs feathery, and my pterosaurs hairy (or is it pycnofibery?)
Keep in mind that Yahoo!'s search is fundamentally different than Google's. Google spiders the web (much like WebCrawler and MetaCrawler did, and still do). Yahoo!'s search has been based on user-submissions and moderators checking each site and adding it into the directories.
This is probably why, as you noted, Yahoo!'s results are more relevant.
I use Bookmarks Synchronizer too, and I love it... as long as I remember to upload and download my bookmarks. The only option for automatically synchronizing is upon launch or close of the browser, which I rarely do. I can see the allure of a bookmarks store which is readily accessible, in exactly the same form, everywhere.
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This is interesting, seems like everyone + dog is jumping onto the "toolbar for IE/Firefox" bandwagon.
What I want to know is, does it have spyware? I seem to remember Yahoo! being in cahoots with some spyware jockeys a year or so ago.
What will this do to Firefox's reputation? I trust firefox and I advocate it heavily to all and sundry. But now, if toolbars like this contain spyware or malware, won't that just turn Firefox into another security hole?
I am government man, come from the government. The government has sent me. -- G.I.R.
This is how most extensions work, but why they would they make it for Windows only if it was just based on XUL, JS and CSS? These are all cross-platform standards supported by all Firefox versions. Or is the implementation under Windows slightly different?
Not trying to spread FUD: I tried out the toolbar, and it doesn't appear to do anything bad (except for ask you whether you want to set your home page to Yahoo when it first runs). It's not something I'll use regularly, but it's nice that people have the option.
Well, forget that! Long live Google! Yahoo is DOOMED!
How about checking your facts first? This is just completely wrong. Yahoo's websearch used google until last year, when they developed their own (after buying up Inktomi and Overture/Altavista/Alltheweb). So Yahoo spiders the web (and WebCrawler/MetaCrawler don't, by the way).
Yahoo's directory is a separate beast.
Ah, but that's the diffrence. Yahoo isn't a search engine. It's an index. Like DMOZ.
Touch everywhere, even when inappropriate.
> Microsoft's strategy of "ease of use is more important than security"
For example, the idea that you can download a third party toolbar.
Not to be pessimistic, but this kind of extendibility is the exact reason that IE is swiss cheese.
http://del.icio.us/
online bookmarks... they have a javascript link you bookmark and click whenever you need to bookmark something...
that way you don't have to upload to a ftp.
also there's a firefox extension that loads the bookmarks from their site.
Si Hoc Legere Scis Nimium Eruditionis Habes
Just a few days ago, some spyware "expert" told that soon firefox will have spyware too. And now Yahoo announces their malware toolbar, that keeps getting installed with all kind of dodgy software, and is harder to keep out than Netsky and friends.
(I run without antivirus, and still haven't had any virus yet. Modern viruses are easy to avoid, just don't double-click them. But that yahoo toolbar needs neither double-clicking or downloading).
Now, the question is: Was the spyware "expert" aware that the Yahoo malware-bar was coming out, or did they make the firefox version to prove is point?
You need to play strings to use yahoo bookmarks?
Gosh those EULAs are getting restrictive!
Um, so Yahoo! opened the source on their toolbar. How long before companies start altering that code and releasing branded versions with "More features!" (ad/spy/malware)?
qntm.org
Yes, Y! messenger does not have as many features on linux. But at least it has some. It supports file transfer reliably, which is more than most linux IM clients do. And at least yahoo cared to make one at all. Which is more than all the other IM companies. We should salute them.
I am trolling
The Yahoo Directory died about 5 years ago (despite being the original service). Sorry nobody notified you.
Mac OSX and Linux
Version 0.2b has not been cleared for Mac and Linux versions of Mozilla Firefox. We are working on fixing known problems, so please please check toolbar.yahoo.com again in the future for Mac and Linux support, or click here if you'd like us to email you when it's ready to test on Mac and Linux.
But personally I prefer to use the Yahoo! MySearch beta. I just hope they end up integrating it with the online bookmarks.
aren't IE toolbars executable?
whereas firefoxes plugins are xpi's, which means they have to have a specific exploit to be dangerous (iirc)
No sir! I have the toolbar search field turned off as it takes up extra space that could be used by the address bar and I search Google using a bookmark with the keyword g.
But search engine to search engine, google wins.
Yahoo used to be a directory index of sites, categorized by humans, but search.yahoo.com is not that.
In my opinion google is better
:) But, it's a rare event where I will search for an answer and not find what I'm looking for on Yahoo, take the same search to Google and get a response (I REALLY miss the "other Yahoos" at the bottom of those results pages!) I think the one thing I like about Yahoo is that I get FEWER responses, but they're typically exactly what I was looking for. I'd prefer to get 100 responses on topic than 50,000 that may have 100 that meet my needs. I do use the advanced functions when I search (+pluses +in +front +of +words, "quotes around phrases to find" AND (parenthizing optional words)), and they work the same Yahoo or Google, so I've gotten used to getting exactly the info I want quickly. Google just hasn't given me a killer reason to switch yet..
Google does have some cool tools (I just discovered video.google.com yesterday by accident), but I disagree that it's better than Yahoo. I typically use Yahoo as my primary search engine. Keep in mind that I know for a fact that 90% of the reason is that I've used Yahoo since 1993, and it's more habit than anything.
Which is more painful? Going to work or gouging your eye out with a spoon? Find out!
http://www.workorspoon.com
This system is pre-pre-alpha; many features have yet to be added. Additionally, many, many bugs remain. Please be careful.
Dude, I just want my bookmarks...
I created an account a couple of minutes ago and couldn't figure out how to make/place a bookmark on the first reading... Of course, I just got in and I'm working on my first cup of cofee.
They sure mean well, but it's not "Click the bookmark button on the toolbar", click "add bookmark"
People who have never used the toolbar keep overlooking the most obvious use for it... bookmark portability. The search field being always there and easily available is a nice idea and all, but having my bookmarks easily available on any PC I use is more valuable to me than any search engine. I have 4 computers at home, several friends computers that I routinely use, parent's computers, computers at work, etc. Before switching all those computers to Firefox, I was able to have a central source for bookmarks. At any computer, I could add bookmarks, change existing ones, delete dead links, and the updated bookmarks followed me around wherever I logged in.
After updating all these computers to Firefox, I now have to manually update the bookmarks everywhere I go, by hand. I still havent found a decent extension that lets me do this as easily as the yahoo toolbar did with IE. The closest I have come is to create a homepage that has all my bookmarks as links, but then I'm stuck editing html whenever the page needs updating.
And before you cry "but you have to install the toolbar on every computer before you have access to those bookmarks"...not so. As anyone who actually uses my!yahoo as their email/news portal knows, you can log on to my!yahoo from any computer and see your bookmakrs displayed on the front page.
This is the best use for the toolbar for me, but I suppose there are those out there who don't have more than one computer, and don't have friends with computers, and don't do tech support for family members with computers, and, *gasp*, dont use computers at work (yes, slashdot readers, there are actually jobs out there that don't involve computers). For those people, they wouldn't find it usefull, but for those in my situation, I recommend you try the toolbar before slamming it as just another 'search-engine-in-the-menu-bar' thingie.
Looks pretty cool - you'll probably have to pry Yahoo bookmarks from my cold dead fingers but I'll give del.icio.us an honest try.
Thanks.
Sure, I have access to a couple of ftp servers but it just seems like too much work and looks like you have to manualy syncronize.
I'm not that much of a geek, I just want my bookmarks.
The thing about yahoo bookmarks is that you just click and "add bookmark" - that's it, unless you want to create sub folders and stuff.
If I go to another computer, I don't have to have the yahoo toolbar installed, I just go to http://bookmarks.yahoo.com, log on and my bookmarks are there, any OS, any browser...
Looks easier that logging on to myftp.myftp.com and checking out mybookmarks.xml
As far as real estate? I think the convinience of having 568 bookmarks wherever/whenever I want them is worth 6 millimiters of space (I measured it) - And bloat? Good Lord, man.... are you the kind of geek that recompiles gentoo every morning before breakfast?
You've gotta love it when Amazon toolbar lists Firefox and Mozilla as the first two browser options under their system requirements.
- yahoo bookmarks integration -- never need to sync your bookmarks between home and work again, because they're on yahoo's server. this alone is worthy of a toolbar.
- "Search only the current site" -- a quick way to restrict a search to the host you're currently looking at
- completely customizable buttons -- only put the buttons you _want_ on the toolbar. there are even two 'personal' buttons that you can set to whatever icon/url you please.
the y! toolbar occupies the space that the bookmarks toolbar once took -- and does a better job at it.oh, and i use it on Mac OSX and FreeBSD firefox without a problem. i think the windows guidance is just a question of what platform the group could QA on before it was released.
SIGUSR1
Not to be pessimistic, but this kind of extendibility is the exact reason that IE is swiss cheese.
It's not the extendability that's insecure, it's the implimentation of that extendability. The difference here is that FireFox extensions are not executable files. They are merely bits of JavaScript and XUL code that the browser itself executes. Thus, by their nature, malicious code cannot get executed unless the browser allows it. MSIE extensions are separate executable files that simply interface with the browser, but run as separate processes on the computer. Therefore, their access to the machine is controlled by the OS, not the browser, and since the program is running on the client, the OS just assumes it's benign. Additionally, since the extension is running on the OS, and not through the browser, it can spawn additional processes, hide itself in the registry, read/write files without the browser's knowledge, and do other nasty things that make some IE toolbars so frustratingly difficult to uninstall.
FireFox's approach to extendability is obviously designed with security in mind. The browser process controls the access that extensions have to the rest of the computer. There is no way to install an extension without the user's knowledge (as there is in IE), and the extensions don't have access to system files or processes. On the other hand, it seems like Microsoft, when they decided to allow IE to be extensable, did not take such security precautions: there are no failsafes in the software architecture. (FireFox has a "safe mode", where it starts the browser without running any extensions; this allows the user to have full control over the extensions s/he installs.)
Read about writing a FireFox extension here.
For security, the MD5 hash of this message and sig is 09f911029d74e35bd84156c5635688c0.
So you want to subversively modify your parent's computer for their own good? And you justify this by saying that they are too stupid to make their own decisions. My friend, what you are proposing sounds like the behavior most people hate about malware and malware writers.
Explain to your parents why you think they should try firefox, but leave the decision up to them.
pus, I don't even have a etter '' key.
Changa hates change.