Google toolbar 5 review #2
Posted by multippt
Great, after the first review, I’ve got another one to add on. In case you are wondering, Google toolbar 5 is the latest revision in testing for Internet Explorer 6 and above, and can be downloaded here.
Google Find just turned my Internet Explorer into Firefox
Pressing Ctrl+F will no longer bring up a box that Microsoft put in. Rather, it will show up a toolbar at the bottom, similar to Firefox, that allows you to search for text in a page as you type. It will also highlight other occurences of text in the page. Of course, since Firefox already has that, Google doesn’t need to put that. In case you want to go back to the old-fashioned Ctrl+F search box, simply disable the “Find” tool via settings.
“Up one level”, just like Windows Explorer
Looks like Google decided to put in a new featured called “Up one level”. What this does is similar to what Windows Explorer does with a button with the same name. In Windows Explorer, pressing “Up one level” brings you to a parent folder. In Google’s case, it’s a little different because it is all online. Up one level will bring you to the parent directory (e.g. google.com/webmasters/start to google.com/webmasters). If there are no more parent directories, it will go by sub-domain (e.g. mail.google.com to google.com).
Searchaholic
Google made other aspects of it’s search features available. Now you can easily choose to search at Google code or other stuff via clicking on a button inside the search box. While this is already present in Google toobar 4, Google made the feature more visible, and included a little more search options.
Error 404? No more WTF
Google toolbar helps remedy problems associated with mistyping links. If you have mistyped a page, Google would suggest links that might be where you are trying to reach. Typing google.co will cause Google toolbar to prompt a suggestion for google.com.
Configuration with less hassle
Aside from a change in looks of the configuration manager, Google toolbar now allows you to configure some aspects of the toolbar with more flexibility. It is now easier to shift your custom buttons and reorder them: just drag and drop. No more clicking on the “move up/down” button endlessly. Google has also pre-configured the button to show many more custom buttons that the previous toolbar, exposing some of its lesser known services - now no more looking at “Features” and “More” to get the most of Google toolbar, just go to “Tools” and enable what you need.
My wishlist for Google toolbar 5
Here are some possible improvements Google could have done to it’s new toolbar.
1. Make the PageRank icon larger
It’s so microscopic that I need to zoom in just to see the pixels; the new PageRank meter looks nice, but it is hard to see the values.
2. Allow reorder of “tools”
While custom buttons can be reordered, tools can’t. Reordering them will allow you to organise your tools. Show/hide is no longer just an option.
3. Allow separators for custom buttons
You got separators for your tools, why not custom buttons? Separators help split your buttons into groups.
4. Fix that PageRank information glitch
“Current Page is not ranked” is different from “No PageRank information for this page”: It is a matter of whether the page is penalized or not!
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So that’s about the second review of Google toolbar 5. If you would want to view the earlier one, it is right here.
