The joy of toolbars

Information Outlook,  Sept, 2003  by Stephen Abram

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How long is your bookmark list? Is it longer than 25? Longer than 100? Is it insanely long? Do you have more than 25 folders, let alone actual bookmarks? Stop the madness!

I had the opportunity to hear a talk this spring by the esteemed SLA member Mary Ellen Bates. She said that, as information professionals, we should stop keeping huge bookmark lists. The links go dead, we rarely check back to many of them, and they're a devil to keep organized. Bates felt that using a few of the usual search engines was the best way to find most sites that we might bookmark and even to discover new and useful ones. The more I thought about it, the more I agreed with her. Most of the time it's more productive to search and find a site than to use the bookmark function of our browsers and keep them up-to-date and organized.

Now here's the contradiction: most of the bookmarks on my PC are for search engines! Of course, many of them have died or gone into hibernation. The irony may be delicious but, think about it--how many of you readers still have bookmarks to Northern Light, awaiting the Second Coming?

So, putting on my librarian's thinking cap (the one with the notch in the back for the bun), I figured that there must be a better way. So for this month's column I reviewed the fantastic list of search engine toolbars that Danny Sullivan and Chris Sherman have assembled at their must-bookmark (more irony) site (http://www.searchenginewatch.com). A search engine toolbar is basically a tiny plug-in for your browser that adds a bar, search box, or drop-down menu to the top of your browser screen and allows you to launch, store, and manage searches directly from your browser without having to open a special website first. Most toolbars load within seconds using a broadband connection and are well worth the effort. Also, they can be uninstalled or temporarily hidden using your View/Toolbars drop down menu. Very convenient!

Google Toolbar (http://toolbar.google.com)

Besides letting you launch Google searches, the toolbar gives you useful contextual information such as the name and address of the site's owner, the site's popularity ranking, and related websites based on surfer behavior. Now, I know that most librarians and info pros have already installed the Google toolbar. Indeed it's often the only toolbar I see on many browsers. Well--big news--it has been improved and you must run, not walk, to download the new beta of the Google toolbar (http://toolbar.google.cmn/indexbeta.php). My absolutely favorite feature is that you can enable/disable pop-ups (you know those annoying ads!) directly from the toolbar. You can also create a post to your blog from the toolbar. Another potentially useful feature is that you can store your information in the toolbar to automatically fill in online forms. It's worth a try!

The Google Mimi-Industry

A whole constellation of companies are creating neat little tools that work with Google but add features and functions that you might find useful. Do you find yourself using many of the specialized searches from Google? Then take a spin on CGSearch (http://www.frysianfools.com/ggsearch/). It's designed to provide toolbar access to the many specialized searches offered by Google, including Google groups posts, images, links, Uncle Sam, Linux, news, BSD, Microsoft, Google answers, stocks, Froogle, some Google labs tools, and others. Gophoria is another cool tool (http://www.gophoria.com/). You just highlight a word on a web page and one quick click later you have a dictionary definition! This is great for researchers doing investigations outside of their normal professional vocabulary! Googlebar (http://google.bar.mozdev.org/) is for folks who are having trouble weaning themselves from that AOL Time Warner orphan, Netscape, but still love Coogle. This is A volunteer-created Google toolbar for Netscape. However, I predict that you will need to change to another browser eventually. Consider joining NA (Netscape Anonymous) for your twelve-step program now.

Groowe Toolbar http://www.groowe.com)

The Groowe toolbar is essentially a meta-search engine seamlessly integrated into your browser's navigation area. As an info pro, you know that to "Google" is good but there are lots of reasons to search elsewhere and to use specialty search engines. Another useful feature is that Groowe supports search term highlighting on most of the engines--a blessing for long pages and quick scans. This toolbar provides access to Google and dozens of other search engines like Yahoo, Teoma, AllTheWeb, Alexa, AltaVista, and MSN Search. It's very easy to reinitiate searches one by one in all the engines it supports. It downloads quickly, and it's worth playing with to see if it meets your needs.

Alexa (http://download.alexa.com/)

Alexa searches Google but adds value too. My favorite feature is that the toolbar adds the ability to easily search the dictionary and thesaurus. I also like the user reviews (out of 5 stars) and the suggestions for related sites. You also gotta love the feature that lets you easily search just the site you're in at the moment.