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."

Comments

This is a great idea for Firefox

[aendeuryu]

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...

Re:This is a great idea for Firefox

[Read Icculus]

Enter spyware. We all know that is the likely result, as it becomes more mainstream it will be targeted more often.

"Trojans, spyware... you don't HAVE to install it..."

Yawn

[hendridm]

Yahoo! Toolbar Beta for Mozilla Firefox Browser

* Search the Web from anywhere online
* Easily discover and add RSS feeds to My Yahoo!
* Customize and access your Toolbar from any PC
* Anti-Spy for Firefox coming soon

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?

Open Sourced?

[Kentsusai]

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.

Re:Open Sourced?

[Aero Leviathan]

Go to your Firefox application data, then the extentions subfolder. Your themes and extensions are there as JAR files. Open the JAR files in Winzip, and you'll see that they're made up of XUL, JS and CSS files, which are easily openable in a text editor to reveal their source code.

A quick look at the Yahoo Toolbar shows that it is no different. Obviously it's not under the GPL, but you can easily have a look and verify that it doesn't do anything malicious. But let me guess... you can't be bothered, as you couldn't even be bothered to find out how Firefox extensions work before, well... sounding like a troll.

Re:Open Sourced?

[QuantumG]

I have Mod points but I think a reply is more in order. Just because you can see the source code does not mean that something is Free Software. I know we were talking about Open Source but that group of people have defined Open Source to be the same as Free Software but without putting the concept of freedom at the forefront of discussion. I think your post here demonstrates the effect of this strategy. People focus more on whether or not the source code is available than the freedoms that people have to use the software. Having the source code available isn't much good if you're still prohibited from sharing it with your neighbour. That's why Microsoft's Shared Source initiative is not Open Source because, although you have the source code, you're not free to distribute the software with or without modifications.

A choice finally?

[Blindman]

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?

Already there....

[vwjeff]

Click on the G on the search bar a choose Yahoo. Done.

Re:Already there....

[Anonymous Coward]

Bingo! And you can add other search engines if you need them. Why bother with Yahoo's stuff?

Re:Ads?

[WhatAmIDoingHere]

It's probably more to hide the built in Google search that Firefox has.

So they have one too..

[aero2600-5]

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.

Maybe I wasn't clear enough

[aendeuryu]

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.

Re:Maybe I wasn't clear enough

[Aeiri]

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.

Exactly, I've been holding off on switching my parents secretly to Firefox for a long time now. Why? Because they use Yahoo! Toolbar for IE. It would be an obvious switch, and I don't want it to be that obvious for them. With this toolbar, however, I think I could secretly swap browsers without them even noticing.

They are very conservative, and they think I'm crazy when I mention that there are other products besides ones that Microsoft makes. They are completely oblivious to almost everything, and to a certain extent think if they stray away from their daily routine, they are breaking the law in some way (yeah, I know)...

They don't realize how much freedom actually exists in the world, and it's scary at times to think what it would be like to live like them.

Re:Maybe I wasn't clear enough

[Anonymous Coward]

Stupid people (my parents included) have no business dictating what software they are willing to use. Software should be choosen by knowledgeable people who have had experience with more than just one piece of software.

The sick part is that because people only know about, say, IE, means they will then compare anything else they see with it, rejecting software that deviates from the look/feel of what is known and comfortable.

No longer is it acceptable to simply ask if a user interface is 'intuitive'. You also have to ask if it looks like 'X' (insert MS brain-damaged SW title here). Microsoft may not be the only software people run, but they have forever changed what people find acceptable.

Re:How hard is it to KEEP from getting?

[Anonymous Coward]

Sure, its not like anyone uses Yahoo Mail or IM or anything.

You should also delete all their porn you don't like.

Re:How hard is it to KEEP from getting?

[mrklin]

You should also delete their AOL account since AOL is for noobs.

Also, remove the Solitaire and all the other games because they are not productive to work.

After that, uninstall Microsoft Office and install OpenOffice.

I mean it is not like Yahoo! Search (based on Altavista and Inktomi's algorhithm) returns relevant result or anything. Or that Yahoo! Plus e-mail users get 2GB of storage or that Yahoo! Music (Launch) is the biggest music site on the net.

Functionality

[deutschemonte]

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.

Re:RSS

[scaldef]

Because while Live Bookmarks are kinda neat, they are no replacement for a real aggregator. I don't want to have to open each entry in a seperate tab, I want to see all my unread content from a given source at once.

Re:How hard is it to KEEP from getting?

[mrklin]

Actually, I do have a problem with what you are doing.

Yahoo! toolbar takes two clicks to disable in IE and does not require you to uninstall it. It is not a mal/ad/spyware. Yahoo!'s anti-spy is integrated into the toolbar and nowhere else. Lastly, it also allows one to search video, local, etc without having to go to Yahoo first. All things that Google do not provide and could be beneficial to the end users.

Yet, you do what a geek elitist would do: replacing it with a tool that you consider to be better for everyone else.

You said it yourself that google is there to help the user find information whereas the yahoo toolbar is not. That is what I am challenging you on. Yahoo! too helps user find the information in addition to providing access to its services, except that you disagree thus you force your view unto others. Bravo. What's next?

Updates As Often As Messenger

[ONOIML8]

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.

Re:On Linux, this is the story

[X]

Why won't Yahoo say the toolbar also works on Linux? We'd help them iron out the bugs if any.

According to them, they have known, significant bugs that show up on Linux. They don't want you to get pissed at them, so their giving you fair warning. If you want to help iron the bugs out, download and install it anyway like I did. They sure aren't going to stop you.