If you're like me you probably use a toolbar to help you surf the net. A toolbar is a handy little utility which enables you to travel around the net with the search engine of your choice. It also affords you a greater degree of security with its popup blocking capability. There are a lot of toolbars out there. I use the Google
toolbar. Who doesn't? Well, a lot of people actually. There are two others that are becoming popular as well. The Yahoo!
toolbar has been very well received and has the added features of Yahoo Mail access, an anti-spyware scanner powered by Pest Patrol, search by subject, bookmarks button as well as many other useful features. Another one to consider is the Earthlink toolbar. Earthlink's toolbar has a built in Google search box plus an interesting new security feature called "ScamBlocker" which protects you from online fraud. Then there's the MSN toolbar for fans of Microsoft. The thing I like about the google toolbar is its
AutoFill function (also available on the MSN toolbar). AutoFill allows you to fill out forms online with one click of a button.
Each of these and all toolbars have or lack something something that their competitors don't.It's just a matter of choosing the one that suits your particular need. Check out this article on internet toolbars and utilities. If you're a Firefox/Mozilla user, there's a toolbar for you, the Googlebar and a Yahoo toolbar which is available currently in beta form. In fact, Google has just released their toolbar for Firefox. I'm using it now.
I just ran across a new toolbar by Mamma called the Explorer bar . It stores all your searches so you can look at them whenever you want without having to go back to the original sites. The latest Google toolbar for Internet Explorer, currently in Beta, is packed with new features which have almost turned the toolbar into something approaching a mini-entertaiment center. It's new Button feature allows you to add instant access to your favorite sites and internet tools. For instance, you can add a mood ring button, a Stupid Vidoes a BCN-Nightlife, Google Video or MP3.com button to the toolbar just to name a few. Add in tons of shopping, gaming, reference and news links buttons and you've got almost no reason to leave the house, all on just one little toolbar! It's worth downloading just for the sheer amazement of it.
One toolbar that is gaining in popularity is Amazon.com's A9 Toolbar. A9 is Amazon.com's venture into the search engine market. And, since no search engine worthy of the name does not offer a toolbar, A9 now offers theirs. A9's toolbar offers most of the features you find on other toolbars. It lets you store your Bookmarks on their server—so you can access them from anywhere. It also has a diary feature which lets you leave your thoughts on any web page-for what it's worth. As a side note, users of A9 get a 1.6 percent discount at Amazon!
I would of course be remiss in my presentation of toolbars here if I did not mention the eBay toolbar. For those of you who make buying, selling and bidding on eBay a significant part of your day, and there are many of us who do, the eBay toolbar simply is a must. The ebay toolbar is as far as I can tell is as close as you can come to being at eBay without actually being there. It lets you keep tabs on items you are selling, watching or bidding on. You can also search the entire eBay site from it. As far as security goes it has a built in anti-spoof site, enables you to report spoof Web sites to eBay and provides eBay Password Protection. So if you're into eBay you'll love this tolbar!
This of course, is just a brief sampling of the many toolbars to choose from.
If you are really keen on a particular toolbar, let me know
Here are the download links for most of the major toolbars ( which I've already posted):
If you like more than one toolbar, don't worry. You don't have to choose. Download and install two toolbars like I have. For the most part,I use the Google toolbar. But I also like Yahoo's toolbar. So I have both installed. Which leads me to my next tip. If you have more than one toolbar installed but don't want your viewing area cluttered with two toolbars, merely right click on an empty space on your browser, in this case Internet Explorer, and put a checkmark beside the toolbar you want to use and the toolbar will appear. Simply remove the checkmark beside the toolbar you don't want to use and the toolbar will disappear.
**A note of Caution - Toolbars are Add-ons (also known as BHOs (Browser Helper Objects which I will discuss later) to Internet Explorer. They can cause problems. The presence of two or more toolbars on your browser can cause browser freezes and crashes. If IE starts to hang or freeze, uninstall the toolbar(s), restart your PC and see how IE performs without the toolbar. IF in doubt, go without a toolbar and use the address bar in IE for your subject searches.**
One last point on toolbars. As handy and convenient as toolbars are, they can also pose problems to your PC security. Toolbars are sometimes included in drive-by downloads and installation of garbagewear on people's systems. If you see a toolbar or an option for or from a toolbar that you did not put there yourself, you uninstall that toolbar. The first thing you do is stop its nasty behaviour right now. Go to Tools on your IE bar (between Favorites and Help) and select Manage Add-ons. You will see a list of Enabled add-ons. Click on the unwanted toolbar in the enabled column and click on Disable. From there it's off to Add/Remove programs.
Some of the more notorious toolbars past and present include:
(I have linked to Trend Micro's McAfee's or F-Secure's write-up on each one of these toolbars.)
Remember, forearmed is forearmed. That is to say that you should already have antispyware programs installed on your system that provide real time protection (monitors your PC detects and prevents spyware installion.) against the installation of spyware on your PC.
Thankfully, there are a few free and effectives tools out there designed to prevent installation of these BHOs and/or remove them from your system. The first and one of the best, was BHO Demon, which I'm sorry to say is no longer available. There's some other good removal tools out there that will help you get rid of nasty toolbars and other spyware. There's Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool which scans for and removes some of the more commmon spyware i.e. Blaster, Sasser, and Mydoom from your PC. Ideally, you should have no need to use BHODemon or a program like it because you will have already installed SpyBot, Spyware Guard , Spyware Blaster and Windows Defender, each of which are free and provides realtime protection against malevolent BHOs, that is they prevent their installation on your system in the first place.
A comprehensive list of rogue
BHOs and Toolbars can be found at CA's (Computer Associates) Spyware Information Center. It's worth a trip or two just to stay abreast of the latest malware threats. |
