May 24, 2007

Enhanced Web Browsing With “Toolbars”

- by Jim Edwards

As the Web grows more crowded and just plain "noisy" with
information bombarding us from every angle, most people welcome any
tool, trick or shortcut to help them wade through the mountains of
data to find what they want.

Since your web browser represents your main window to the Internet,
it makes sense for any tool which enables you to find what you need
and get around faster online should sit right where you need it
most.

Introducing Web browser "toolbars," free little programs that work
with Internet Explorer and Netscape to put you several steps closer
to the information you need right now.

~ Google Toolbar ~ The free toolbar from search giant Google offers
the best search features of any toolbar we evaluated.

Not only does it allow you to search the web, but also enables you
to search within a website to find specific information.

The Google toolbar’s main features include "Page Rank," which gives
an indication of a website’s overall value based on your search
criteria and other factors, along with a "backwards links" function
which allows you to see which sites link to the website currently
loaded in your browser.

You can download the Google toolbar on your web browser by visiting
http://toolbar.google.com and following the simple installation
instruction.

~ Alexa Toolbar ~ Alexa’s main claim to fame revolves around its
traffic ranking report on virtually any site on the Internet.

The lower the Traffic Ranking number, the more popular a site rates
in Alexa’s eyes. Currently Yahoo, MSN and Google occupy the top 3
spots on Alexa’s charts.

With so many websites on the Internet, an Alexa ranking of less than
100,000 is considered good, and a ranking of less than 10,000 is
considered outstanding as far as a site’s relative popularity on the
Web.

Alexa also offers a related links feature right on the toolbar so
you can quickly find links to sites that other people also visit
when surfing the site you currently have loaded in your browser.

Alexa also offers a pop-up blocker to help cut down on the pop-up
windows that seem to invade your desktop the minute you venture
online. You can download the Alexa Toolbar free from www.alexa.com.

~ AltaVista Toolbar ~ Former search giant AltaVista recently jumped
on the toolbar bandwagon with their offering from www.altavista.com.

Install the AltaVista toolbar and access a couple of interesting
features, including a language translation button and an MP3 search.

Click the "Translate" button and instantly translate entire web
pages from one language to another.

The MP3 search will help you find the tune you want from AltaVista’s
audio index.

Most of the toolbars offer additional gadgets to help you with
everything from weather forecasts to currency conversion.

Because they offer many of the same features and they take up
valuable screen space, using more than one toolbar at a time often
proves impractical.

Since most toolbars come free of charge, evaluate them all for their
main features and overall usability for your particular needs and
then stick with the best one. —-Jim Edwards is a syndicated
newspaper columnist (http://www.TheNetReporter.com) and is the
author of numerous best-selling ebooks, information products and
software programs.

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