Google toolbar 5 - beta
Posted by multippt
Google has silently dished out yet another update to its Google toolbar. Since it is in beta, always proceed with caution, though maybe in Google’s case, all betas are fairly stable enough (who says GMail can’t stay in beta for 2 years?). You can get the toolbar from this page. This toolbar is only available to Internet Explorer users.
Interface
This beta seems to change quite a few usual things compared to the previous one. For one, the icons do look more nicer and organised, particular the smaller PageRank icon and separators. Though, the PageRank icon does give a sort of an eyestrain - it’s so tiny and hard to see, one even needs to guess what PR a site has because a unit difference in PR corresponds to a pixel difference (and, a pixel is really small). Overall, the older icons look unchanged, but I guess what concerns more is the features right? Right on to it.
Custom buttons + Google gadgets
Google has now integrated Google gadgets with its toolbar as custom buttons, making it much easier to access. You can add these gadgets via the Google gallery.
Google toolbar - anywhere
One thing of note is that this version of the Google toolbar allows you to port your settings to other Google toolbars on other computers (but they should be at least version 5). The settings are actually saved to your account, thus allowing you to get the same Google toolbar preferences you have at home by simply logging onto the toolbar using your account.
Notebook with toolbar
Google makes it easier to access the Google notebook feature. One click on the notebook icon will bring up a window where you can manage your notebooks (and create as well). Google notebook is it’s own sort of social diary thingy - where you can pen down some stuff like a real notebook - except this time you can do it at any time any where without being present at the notebook page.
Web history
Although this isn’t really very new, Google decided to make it accessible to the toolbar rather than just an isolated page or the requirement of having PageRank enabled. The historical records details on your search history (gasp! privacy….). Fortunately, it records information only when you are signed in, and can be removed. Anyways, this feature might be useful to some - especially if they are backtracking to some search results. While this can actually be done by viewing browser history, this aspect of the toolbar focuses more on your Google searches rather than the overall.
Translator
In the past, translation required a bookmarklet if one were to not visit the translator page, which can be lost if you have tons of other bookmarks. This time, Google made it a click away - by making it available on the toolbar itself. No more searching for the bookmarklet or going straight to Google translate. An added bonus is that it can translate on the go, allowing users with no idea what English is to understand what’s going on.
Other tidbits
It’s rumored that this version of toolbar contained the new check-sum for PageRank. And guess what? It IS true. The new checksum is very different from the old ones. For now, both will work, until it is time Google decides to mandate the upgrade.
Another tidbit is that if you choose not to close all browser windows when installing the new toolbar, you get to use the old and new ones simultaneously - until you close all of them again. What I mean by this? This picture shall illustrate:
Other than that, you can still uninstall the toolbar by clicking on a nice button available at “Adjust toolbar options”.
Glitch in Toolbar!
UPDATE: Whew, even just hours of installing the toolbar I’ve just found a tiny problem with it. The PageRank indicator indicates the wrong message for pages without a pagerank. “No PageRank information available” is now swapped with “Current Page is not ranked” and vice versa. How could Google mistake between the two? It’s a matter of whether a page is penalized or not!
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Upgrade if you want, but remember that it is still in beta. Well, at least most Google betas are stable.
