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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.
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
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
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.