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Google to Release Firefox Toolbar
daria42 writes "Google is about to release a Firefox version of its toolbar, according to an e-mail sent to developers of the open source GoogleBar project. The e-mail claims to have been sent by Google engineer Fritz Schneider and is dated 1 July. "It has pretty much the same features as the latest IE toolbar except of course for things like the popup blocker," the e-mail said (Pop-up blocking is an in-built feature of Firefox)."
...but really, I'm doing just fine setting Firefox's search box to use Google.
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
Pop-up blocking is an in-built feature of Firefox
If only that were still true.... Sadly, the advertisers appear to be way ahead of the Mozilla devs on this one.
I didn't RTFA but I wonder if this will enable me to participate in Google Compute...
Beyond the obvious search bar, Googlebar has a few other useful functions that the default Firefox one does not have, such as the ability to search within one site. Something I use a lot is the ability to quickly jump to and highlight the keywords you've just searched for by clicking them in the bar. It makes finding relevant info. on a long page much easier.
We all know that means Red Hat 8.0+. Quit complaining, not everyone knows that much about linux.
I know some of you are going to run around with your hair on fire about the "man" using this toolbar to spy on us, etc... But really this is great news for FireFox. Firstly anyone who has used the IE Google Toolbar and tried the various FireFox extensions that mimic it know they are a good, but ulitmately a pale comparison to the original. The ease of use, and the fact that it simply works make the IE Google Toolbar a great, well, tool. I can't wait for the Firefox version. By Google releasing this it proves that FireFox is a big deal to the corporate world. Not IE big deal, but at least its a start. Plus with FireFox's ability to use extensions you have the best of both worlds, you can roll your own so to speak, or if you want a simple all in one, use the Google Firefox Toolbar. You have now one less reason to use IE and one more great one for using FireFox.
All those posts on the lines of "we have this already" are missing several points.
Firstly, this is about choice. You can have the official Google toolbar or the alternatives. Google have even said they will continue to link to Googlebar so users know they have the choice
Secondly, it is more likely to be used by non-geek users, simply becuase it comes from Google.
Thirdly, it is very good publicity for Firefox - it will be mentioned in Google press releases, and on pages about the Google Toolbar.
Fourthly, it will pressure others who have IE only extensions to produce Firefox versions - as Yahoo and Clusty already have.
Yahoo does not get much respect here on slashdot but I can't figure out why. They give you two gigs of free email, they have a very nice messenger. They let you create a very nice portal of your own choosing. They give you a calender and other productivity apps. They let you publish your resume on line. They let you make your own home page. They have the firefox toolbar (and ie). They have IP telephony (costs too much but it's integrated with messenger). The list goes on and on.
Google gets all the hype, yahoo gets no respect. I wonder why.
evil is as evil does