Several people I know have set their home pages to Google.com. I've gone one step further: I've installed the Google Toolbar on my computer, so it's always there.It's been there, in fact, since Google released it two years ago. It's so much part of my browsing experience that every time I sit at another computer without it, I feel lost without it.Until the beta of version 2 came along, it wasn't really an executable program, so you couldn't rightly call it a killer app.
It's more like all the services you can get at the Google Web site reduced to a series of buttons on a single toolbar that attaches to Internet Explorer's browser. (So far, only a lesser version called Google Buttons will work on Mac or Linux systems, or with Netscape browsers; Opera users are out of luck on all counts.)The new version, however, has added a few features that make it more of an application.The basic tools are still there. Its focus is still on the box where you enter the search term, a page-information button and a highlight button that flags every search word on all the pages resulting from a search — a terrific feature.
But now Google has added a pop-up blocker, a nice feature usually found only in commercial software; AutoFill, for help in completing web forms quickly and easily with information that's saved securely on their own computer, and BlogThis, a shortcut to Blogger, a blog-creation tool recently acquired by Google.Yes, I know Globeandmail.com sometimes has pop-up ads, and they pay our bills, but they can still be annoying; besides, this feature can be turned off, especially during searches where pop-ups aren't necessarily unwanted ads. AutoFill will put in only what you let it; it will enter your credit-card information if you want, but you don't have to tell Google about it at all.Other new features include a Search Site button, in which you can search only the pages of the site being viewed, and Word Find, a search for the search terms wherever they appear on the individual page.
The toolbar occupies very little space on the page, but its benefits are amazing. I'm still impressed by Google's news search, which checks current news pages on the Web, and the stock quotes, and only a little less so by the image-searching feature, which seems to offer fewer images than I imagine can be found on the Web.
Then again, I suspect that's the fault of the people who post the pictures without giving them alternative-text descriptions.The toolbar is so useful that I had to review it before version 2 came out of beta; besides, I've yet to find a bug in it anywhere.The best part of the toolbar? It's free. I get more use out of it than from many proprietary software packages that I pay good money for.But I still can't call it a killer app. But let's just call it a TKO app.Google Toolbar, free download from Google.com.
By Steve/Jack Kapica
It's more like all the services you can get at the Google Web site reduced to a series of buttons on a single toolbar that attaches to Internet Explorer's browser. (So far, only a lesser version called Google Buttons will work on Mac or Linux systems, or with Netscape browsers; Opera users are out of luck on all counts.)The new version, however, has added a few features that make it more of an application.The basic tools are still there. Its focus is still on the box where you enter the search term, a page-information button and a highlight button that flags every search word on all the pages resulting from a search — a terrific feature.
But now Google has added a pop-up blocker, a nice feature usually found only in commercial software; AutoFill, for help in completing web forms quickly and easily with information that's saved securely on their own computer, and BlogThis, a shortcut to Blogger, a blog-creation tool recently acquired by Google.Yes, I know Globeandmail.com sometimes has pop-up ads, and they pay our bills, but they can still be annoying; besides, this feature can be turned off, especially during searches where pop-ups aren't necessarily unwanted ads. AutoFill will put in only what you let it; it will enter your credit-card information if you want, but you don't have to tell Google about it at all.Other new features include a Search Site button, in which you can search only the pages of the site being viewed, and Word Find, a search for the search terms wherever they appear on the individual page.
The toolbar occupies very little space on the page, but its benefits are amazing. I'm still impressed by Google's news search, which checks current news pages on the Web, and the stock quotes, and only a little less so by the image-searching feature, which seems to offer fewer images than I imagine can be found on the Web.
Then again, I suspect that's the fault of the people who post the pictures without giving them alternative-text descriptions.The toolbar is so useful that I had to review it before version 2 came out of beta; besides, I've yet to find a bug in it anywhere.The best part of the toolbar? It's free. I get more use out of it than from many proprietary software packages that I pay good money for.But I still can't call it a killer app. But let's just call it a TKO app.Google Toolbar, free download from Google.com.
By Steve/Jack Kapica
