Firefox Google Toolbar

[Sirber]

"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."
http://toolbar.google.com/firefox/index.html

[Doobie]

It has been a while since I used the Google Toolbar. Back then, it was optional if you wanted the toolbar to report back your surfing behavior. Now, it appears that this is no longer optional. Can you say "spyware"?

[Sirber]

It ask if you want to use "PageRank", which report to google where you browse. This is optionnal.

[unskinnyboy]

Finally! This was one thing which I was missing in FF when I switched from IE.

[Doobie]

It ask if you want to use "PageRank", which report to google where you browse. This is optionnal.

I don't know. The option box only mentions "PageRank Display". The explaination is "Show PageRank measure for the current page." This looks like the spyware stays functional, it's just whether you want to see the page rankings on your toolbar. It seems very sloppy of the people at Google to be this vague if they mean to fully deactive PageRank.

[Sirber]

Should mail them :) Or look at the source.

[Zach]

Firefox has it's own built-in search bar, so I don't exactly understand what would be gained by using a 3rd party variant.

The only reasons I used the Google Toolbar in IE before I switched to Firefox were because it blocked pop-ups and because it provided an easy means to search the web. Again, both these functions are internal to Firefox, so why use an external solution?

[mastercontrol]

Finally! This was one thing which I was missing in FF when I switched from IE.
There has been a Google Toolbar for Firefox available for a long time now:
http://googlebar.mozdev.org/

Personally, I don't see any reason to switch from the Googlebar extension to the official Google Toolbar. I have all the features I want with Googlebar.

[shevegen]

Strg+j to access my builtin google-bar field in firefbox, then i either paste, or type what i search for.

I cant see it going anywhere faster by using google's big brother approach... so i really dont understand why any FF user would need this really - page rank can be modified if google wants to, and doesnt necessarily help you to find stuff quicker than using quality sites like wikipedia, or just the good old middle-mouse button click through to find your stuff then-close-it-down-if-its-not-listed-there approach of googling... ;)

[Atamido]

I am reasonably sure the only reason that the Google Toolbar reported what site you were on was to get the pagerank. So disabling the pagerank should disable reporting.

As for how useful pagerank is, not very for most people. Personally I just liked to see how popular Google thought a given page was. It was just interesting.

[Doobie]

I am reasonably sure the only reason that the Google Toolbar reported what site you were on was to get the pagerank. So disabling the pagerank should disable reporting.

That was my original thought, until thought about the actual text of the discription for the option. But, even if you don't want the PageRank displayed on your toolbar, Google would still want to know where you're surfing to improve the performance of their PageRank function.

If the display/show PageRank option is unselected, I don't think Google gets the URL because otherwise Google would be facing a huge Public Relations problem. I just wish they weren't so vague about it.

[Atamido]

If you are really concerned about it, use Ethereal (http://www.ethereal.com/) and capture all packets sent from your system, or use TCPView (http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/TcpView.html) and watch for connections to *.Google.com

[MaximRecoil]

Firefox has it's own built-in search bar, so I don't exactly understand what would be gained by using a 3rd party variant.

The only reasons I used the Google Toolbar in IE before I switched to Firefox were because it blocked pop-ups and because it provided an easy means to search the web. Again, both these functions are internal to Firefox, so why use an external solution?
This has been the major thing that has prevented me from using FireFox, i.e. its (until now) lack of a real Google Toolbar, which has functionality that the integrated toolbar does not; namely the "Word-find buttons"; which I use all the time:

http://maxim.skyphix.com/google.gif

I realize that there are other ways to do this (Ctrl+F) but this method is the most convenient I have used.

[Doobie]

This has been the major thing that has prevented me from using FireFox, i.e. its (until now) lack of a real Google Toolbar, which has functionality that the integrated toolbar does not; namely the "Word-find buttons"; which I use all the time:

There has "always" been GoogleBar (http://googlebar.mozdev.org/) for Firefox with the features of Google Toolbar, including the find-on-page functions.

[MaximRecoil]

There has "always" been GoogleBar (http://googlebar.mozdev.org/) for Firefox with the features of Google Toolbar, including the find-on-page functions.
I was responding to someone who was using FireFox's integrated search bar as a point of comparison, which of course does not have the "Word-find buttons".

About this "Googlebar"; I didn't know of that until I was reading this thread, and if I'd known of it earlier I would have given it and FireFox more of a try.