7 replies to this topic

[umesh]

Google Launches Deskbar
Search using Google without opening your browser

http://toolbar.google.com/deskbar/

[OldWelshGuy]

First to the marketplace ahead of Microsoft with a built in search, this will do their IPO no harm at all.

[daniel]

Nice little tool.

No PageRank indicator (I know Jill will be devastated).

Another question. Does the Google mini-viewer count as another browser that pages have to be optimised for?

[Searchaware]

Looks pretty good - I wonder what the take up will be. Every PC I look at seems to have the Google toolbar so I suspect a lot of people will install this.

I have anyway, so that's 1 and counting

[bwelford]

Hey Guys, Hotbot did it months ago and so much better. If you're thinking of installing a Deskbar, then do some comparison shopping before you buy. You'll find it at HotBot Deskbar

[Googlewhacked]

Actually, someone beat HotBot to the punch too! For a really rockin' lil' app, check out Dave's Quick Search Deskbar:

http://notesbydave.com/toolbar/doc.htm

It's all that, a bag o' chips and a soda! (IMHO...)

Happy Friday!

- GW

[daniel]

I used to use Dave's Quick Search Taskbar Toolbar Deskbar, which I see HotBot's is based on. I guess this makes it very powerful, but I never found the time to learn all the features and use it to its potential.

That's why the Google bar is great. Very simple and intuitive to use.

Just my opinion of course.

I actually use a powerful (and user-editable) search facility in the browser Sleipnir - which is essentially a 'skin' for IE (it's freeware) that provides tabbed browsing, and a powerful, tailorable search bar.

The search bar is useful for checking a site's ranking on lots of different search engines relatively quickly and easily. You can edit the search bar to add any search engines you want, and using additional elements youc an customise the way results are displayed. Of course, you can do this manually with all the search engines (for example, show 100 results instead of 10), but it makes it easier if you can save these settings and access them from a drop-down menu.

One that I use a lot is the search that produces a numbered list of results so you can determine the ranking of your site at a glance. The following is a search that does this and has been restricted to UK results on google.co.uk:

Search google.co.uk - UK only - for 'Jill Whalen'

Anyway, I think I've gone off on a slight tangent....

[bwelford]

Well I broke down and installed the Google Deskbar as well. Yes, it's very good. However I'll be hanging on to my HotBot Deskbar too.

After all that's the easiest way to do a Google Advanced Search. Just type
> keyword
into the HotBot Deskbar and there you are!