InsaneJournal

Google Toolbar
Today's software is the  Google Toolbar.

I love this Toolbar. I use Google more than any other search engine, so it's nice to be able to search from any point in my browsing. The features I like best however are the pop-up blocker, form filler, search highlighter, and spellchecker.



The pop-up blocker is one of the nicest I've ever used, it catches 98% of pop-ups and is easy to turn on and off. I've tested it on some of the most difficult spots on the web, including angelfire.com websites, and its performance has been stellar.

The form filler is a simple and efficient way to fill in common information on forms with the push of a single button.

The search highlighter is one of the most convenient functions I have ever seen. It will highlight all the occurrences of the search term, each word in a different color, on the current page. You don't even have to do a Google search for the term first! Simply type the term in the search box and hit the highlight button. This feature is really convenient when you're searching for a story or article that contains a certain word, since you don't have to read the whole thing to determine whether or not it's relevant to your search.

The newest feature is a spellchecker, offered with the 3.0 beta version. I tested it on this post and compared it to my current spellchecker, IeSpell, and while it works differently, it compared well. You simply hit the spellcheck button when you're ready to use it, then use the right-click function to correct misspelled words. When you're finished, you hit the spellcheck button again to turn it off. It has a customizable dictionary and auto-correct. You will find the link to the beta version of the toolbar on the download page.

A final, and optional feature of the toolbar is the Google Compute function. You download this addition after the main toolbar and it allows you to donate unused processing time to worthwhile research projects. I believe the project they're working on now involves decoding a protein molecule. Because it runs at a low priority, it doesn't interfere with your other programs, and you can disable it if you need to. I've been running it for over 3 months and it has not given me any trouble. In fact, I don't even notice it.

The Google Toolbar will improve the speed and efficiency of your web browsing, give it a try. It's FREE!

Note: While I have found that using Firefox makes this toolbar unnecessary, it is still very useful if you use Internet Explorer.

Note - Jan. 23, 2008: Google Personal Web History rocks, and makes using the toolbar in Firefox worthwhile!