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Google Toolbar for Firefox Released

Posted by Zonk on from the new-toys dept.

fizz writes "Google has released their toolbar, available in 10 languages for the Firefox browser, and available for 3 operating systems (Windows, Mac and Linux). You can download it from the Google Toolbar homepage, and you can read the Google Blog for more information." Reported on recently here on Slashdot.

18 of 277 comments (clear)

  1. That's great and all by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    But I think I speak for everyone on Slashdot when I ask when is Microsoft going to release the MSN Toolbar for Firefox?

    1. Re:That's great and all by cant_get_a_good_nick · · Score: 5, Funny

      A long time ago, in a Galaxy far far away, I actually had Word 6.0 running on Solaris 2.6/SPARC, under WABI, which provided a Windows 3.1 environment. It worked slowly, but other than that, pretty well. In fact, I got a macro virus, Concept1. Was weird for the guy running Solaris to be able to identify to the company (all 8 of us) that we had a Word macro virus. They started to scrub the fileservers and eventually traced it back to a Word doc from a vendor.

      Who says microsoft doesn't do cross platform, I got a cross platform virus people, years before java.

  2. Technically, it's not a dupe.... by TrentL · · Score: 5, Informative

    Since the article earlier today said they were "about to" release the toolbar.

    1. Re:Technically, it's not a dupe.... by MightyMartian · · Score: 4, Funny

      And, tomorrow we'll have "Google Firefox Toolbar released yesterday!". Then, the day after, "Two Days Since Firefox Google Toolbar Released". Then, in a weeks time "Major Security Issues with Google Toolbar for Firefox." Then a couple of days later "Security Issues Fixed In New Release of Google Toolbar for Firefox." Then a month from now "New Book About Using Google Toolbar For Firefox, ISDN#82389234"

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  3. Its cool by ResQuad · · Score: 4, Informative

    The only problem I have with it is the doube google search box.

    --
    snowulf.com
    1. Re:Its cool by richardablitt · · Score: 5, Informative

      You can always right click on one of the toolbars, go to customise (or customize), and drag off the other google box. It is kind of unnecessary, since firefox already has the search box and pop-up blocking installed, which were the two main features it added to IE. (I know there's more, but those were the main ones for me).

  4. It works on Linux!! by utopicillusion · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It works on Linux, even on PPC ones. Finally, google released a product for Linux users.

    Does this mean that Google is going to migrate some more of their products from Google Labs http://labs.google.com/ on linux now?

    1. Re:It works on Linux!! by IntergalacticWalrus · · Score: 4, Informative

      Firefox extensions are written in their internal script (XUL), so unless someone does some stupid unportable shit (backslashes!!) they will run on any platform.

  5. Foogle-Gox and the future: by Nomihn0 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Will this tool bar replace the default Firefox Google homepage? Sponsorship is what it's all about, after all, no? Do you really think that Firefox developers will tolerate such redundancy? My bet is on the discontinuation of the homepage paired with a default Google Toolbar installation.

  6. Other toolbars? by Jaymaedae · · Score: 4, Interesting


    Does anyone have suggestions for other toolbars that are useful that work in Firefox? I am sure auto-complete is just scratching the surface. ( That's really all I use the google toolbar for anyway...in IE)

  7. "Toolbars" make me uncomfortable... by GillBates0 · · Score: 4, Insightful
    /tinfoil hat on Maybe it's just due to the abundance of spyware that disguises themselves as browser toolbars (I cringe everytime I see a MySearch toolbar running on an acquaintances IE), but it's more due to the fact that integrating my open-source browser with a proprietary piece of software is apt to open up all kinds of privacy issues like making me more vulnerable to a single entity (in this case Google) tracking all my online activity, searches, form information, etc.

    I know Google tracks and logs every search query by IP address, but it's these persistent session pieces like the GMail cookies, "Personalized results" etc, that I find scarier. And what's more, a large number of people tend to use their full names as Email IDs (moreso for an attractive email service like GMail, which can be used as a formal email account for most purposes), which gives Google a way to directly map People Names to Google Searches.

    /tinfoil hat off

    --
    An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
  8. Not enough features.. by mislam · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I do not see enough features in the toolbar to let it occupy 25% (ok maybe less) of my browsers tool space.

    1. Re:Not enough features.. by SavvyPlayer · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Nice to see this in Firefox, but I must confess some disappointment with the latest release. There is plenty of room to the right of the menu bar for all of the Google Toolbar features, however Google chose instead to gobble up a 4th row of buttons along the top of the window. Google chose the shortest path from point A (IE toolbar) to point B (straight port), not taking the time to properly implement Firefox's UI guidelines: its buttons are neither dockable or aware of the "show icons, text or icons + text" user preference.

      This isn't rocket science. When hiring offshore IT talent, does Google translate its requirements via http://www.google.com/language_tools?hl=en ?

  9. might as well by buddha42 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Google should just CNAME pr.google.com to slashdot.org

  10. Too late... by wviperw · · Score: 5, Interesting

    When I was first thinking about converting to Firefox I remember that Google's toolbar was the "killer app" that initially kept me from switching over. Then I realized that I could do pretty much everything I could do using Google's IE-only toolbar using Firefox extensions and its built-in capabilities.

    For example, for instant Google searches, Firefox allows you to create Keyword Searches in which you can just type in, in my case, "g <search query>" in the URL bar. Or for Wikipedia it is "w <search query>". For word highlighting you can just use Firefox's search functionality. And finally, for AutoFill you can use the AutoFill extension (which ends up being better than Google's anyway IMO).

    So basically, Firefox has rendered the Google toolbar pretty useless to me.

    --
    Nothing disturbs me more than blind loyalism towards some unrealistic and over-idealistic notion of one's nationality.
    1. Re:Too late... by wviperw · · Score: 5, Informative

      Sure! It is really quite easy. Go to www.google.com and right click on the textbox where you would normally enter your search. Click on "Add a Keyword for this Search..." and then just set whatever keyword you would like in the Keyword textbox. So for Google I just entered "g". You can do the same thing with any search box, so I've got it setup to work with Google (g), Google Local (gl), Google Image (gi, Wikipedia (w), Download.com (dl), Dictionary.com (d), Rottentomatoes.com (rt), IMDB (imdb), and WHOIS (whois).

      --
      Nothing disturbs me more than blind loyalism towards some unrealistic and over-idealistic notion of one's nationality.
  11. Re:Slashdot promotes spyware by dameron · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...the page you are viewing will be sent to Google if you click on the "Cached Snapshot", "Backward Links" or "Similar Pages" features.

    Wow, imagine that, google needing to know which page you're viewing so it can 1) show you a cache of that page, 2) show links to the current page, or 3) show pages related to the one you're viewing.

    How on earth could they do this without knowing what page you're viewing?

  12. Re:What's the benefit? by Martin+Blank · · Score: 4, Informative

    The pop-ups got through because people figured out a way around them.

    That said, IIRC, Google has not included pop-up blocking in the Firefox version, because Firefox already has pop-up blocking.

    --
    You can never go home again... but I guess you can shop there.