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.

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. More »

Windows Vista Betas to expire today

Posted by multippt

The Windows Vista betas would expire today, 31st May 2007.

 If you want to save your data, you would need to upgrade/reformat your betas. Windows Vista Beta 2 requires a clean install, Windows Vista RC1 and RC2 could use an inplace upgrade (if you upgrade to Windows Vista ultimate) or clean install (you get to save about US$200) with the Windows Vista upgrades in the final release (RTM).

The in-place upgrade preserves all your data, while clean install will erase all your files and “repair” all settings [if needed].

Note that after this day, users of these betas would only be able to log in for 2 hours at any time to retrieve/backup data. After the 2 hours, the computer running the beta will shut down (without providing the opportunity to save data). During this period of time, you might be able to upgrade your beta to the final copy of Windows Vista (but, it is recommended that you have already upgraded the operating system earlier than the 31st of May). The 2 hour login sessions would be available for a while after the 31st of May for a limited amount of time (up till the 28th of August 2007).

Blogger beta now out of beta

Posted by multippt

The long anticipated blogger beta has finally come out of beta status. Bloggers using the old version of blogger can now switch over to the new one more easily. (Not to mention, easier creation of Google accounts). The new version of blogger is designed to make blogging and managing of one’s blog as easy as possible. Now, its easy to customize templates without going through all that special blog code. In addition, those hardcore blog customizers get more control over the blog, since Google decided to add more tags to the palette of blog tags.

The transfer of old blogs to the new version of blogger is permanent. The only blogs not upgraded are the ones connected to old blogger accounts (not ungraded yet), and this usually applies to team blogs. Team blogs are only upgraded when all members of the team blog upgrade their accounts as well. However, you still get to enjoy what the old blogger has, since the new version of blogger still retains most (probably all) of the features the old blogger had. Private blogs are also possible. Support for RSS 2.0 and Atom 1.0 is improved. Also, blog publishing (usually associated with blog posts in the old blogger) is improved. There is a smaller wait time (you do not get to see the “publishing…” spiner), since changes to the blog (including layout) are made immediately and will go “live” instantly.

The most obvious improvement over the older version of blogger is the new dashboard. The dashboard is now more organised. You can access more options straight from the dashboard.

Via Blogger

Flash 9 player beta update

Posted by multippt

Adobe silently released an update to the Flash 9 beta. With this update, you will have version 9.0.28.0 installed. This update does not apply if you are using flash 8 and below. This update is available automatically (I received it when powering on my computer). 

Remember that Flash 9 is still in beta, so expect some bugs or instability (well… thats normal for a beta, or prereleased software). 

Thunderbird 2.0 beta released

Posted by multippt

Mozilla has recenly released a new beta its award-winning email client, Thunderbird. Of course, do expect some bugs from this build (well, taking it to be a beta…). The final release of Thunderbird 2.0 will most likely make its debute by next year.

The features are as followed:
-Message Tags (Used for organizing mail)
-New user interface
-Back/Forward buttons (for easy navigation)
-Folder views
-Folder summary popups (reveals information on newly received mail)
-Increased support for extensions (or plugins)
-Improved offline management
-Improved notification alerts (now includes a little more information)
-Faster saved search results (better caching)
-Improved filing tools (also used for organizing mail)
-New windows installer -Mac OSX universal binaries

Via Official Thunderbird site