Sidewiki--shown on the left-hand side of this page--lets Google Toolbar users add comments to any Web page.
(Credit: Google)Google plans to try its hand at the bane of many a Web publisher's existence: comment moderation.
Sidewiki is a new addition to the Google Toolbar that will let users read comments on any Web site and add their own in a special interface on the left hand side of the screen enabled by the toolbar. This idea has been tried before by others, but Google is proposing to use an algorithm to rank comments by quality and to link comments to a user's Google Profile.
Google has developed an algorithm that it says can filter out obvious spam, naughty words, and the classic all-caps technique employed by some of the Internet's more unhinged pundits, said Caesar Sengupta, group product manager at Google. As comments build over time, a recursive algorithm can analyze the quality of past comments using reader votes on the comment's usefulness.
You can share your comments with your Facebook or Twitter accounts, and can post a link to a blog item discussing that Web page with a snippet of the text, Sengupta said. Only Google Toolbar users will be able to see the comments on the Web page, obviously, but Google plans to work on an API (application programming interface) that will allow developers to use Sidewiki in other places.
This kind of service will likely sink or swim on the strength of its ranking algorithms, but could give readers a way to discuss, correct, or clarify static Web pages that don't allow reviews or comments directly on the page.
Google Toolbar is available for Internet Explorer and Firefox, and you'll need to download the toolbar to get started with Sidewiki. Current Google Toolbar users will see the Sidewiki button shortly as Google works out a few kinks in the delivery process, but they can re-download the toolbar if they want to get started.
The first thing I saw when I booted my PC yesterday evening was a notice that Google had prevented my default search setting from being changed. I certainly didn't want to switch from searching via Google by default. I hadn't even been considering a search change, regardless of Bing's pretty wallpaper.
The Google Toolbar prevented Windows Search from changing my default search setting without my permission.
(Credit: Google)To find out what program was trying to change my search default, I opened Vista's Event Viewer by pressing the Windows key, typing event viewer, and pressing Enter. I clicked Application in the left pane and scrolled to the approximate time the warning popped up. It took all of about two seconds to realize that Windows Search Service attempted to change my search default.
Vista's Event Viewer identified the Windows Search Service as the likely source of the attempt to change my search default.
(Credit: Microsoft)Well, I can't prove it based solely on the Event Viewer logs, but it's safe to say the search service is the prime suspect. I was relieved that Google prevented the change, but I couldn't recall asking the company to do so. I found the alert setting in the options of the Google Toolbar in Internet Explorer.
The Search tab in the Google Toolbar options lets you generate an alert whenever a program attempts to change your default search setting.
(Credit: Google)Ironically, I couldn't find a comparable setting in the latest version (5.0.20090324) of the Google Toolbar for Firefox, which is my default browser.
The Google Toolbar for Firefox lacks a setting that generates an alert and prevents programs when they attempt to change your default search setting.
(Credit: Google)Should you find your search default has been changed unexpectedly, resetting it is a breeze. In Firefox, type about:config in the address bar and press Enter. Browse to and double-click browser.search.defaultenginename. Type the name of any search service listed on the search drop-down menu and press OK.
To add a search engine to the list, click Manage Search Engines and then Get more search engines. Download your engine of choice and restart Firefox to see it among the search options on the menu.
To make the same change in Internet Explorer 8, click the down arrow to the right of the search box and choose Manage Search Providers. Make your selection and choose Set as default. Or choose Find More Providers, pick a search service, and click Add to Internet Explorer to broaden your IE search options.
To change your search default in Google's Chrome browser, click the wrench icon in the top-right corner, choose Options, and make your selection in the "Default search" drop-down menu near the bottom of the Basics tab. Unfortunately, there's no easy way to add search providers to Chrome's list, though you may see more options by clicking Manage, choosing one of the services listed, and clicking Add.
Updated July 2 at 10:30 a.m. PDT: The full list of supported languages has been added to the bottom of the story.
Toolbars have long been an effective way for software publishers to add several features to a browser at once, and the Google Toolbar has long been among the most popular of these. Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer introduces revamped translation tools, giving users one-click powers of conversion over many languages.
Google Toolbar for IE now offers one-click page translation.
(Credit: Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)The toolbar now detects your default language setting and using the Translate button will attempt to convert the page to it. Clicking a link will automatically translate the new page, as long as its part of the same domain as the original. Forty-one languages are supported so far, from Spanish, French, Italian, and German to Chinese, Japanese, Hebrew, Hindi, Ukranian, and Vietnamese.
Not all words on a page will be translated, but from my tests that seems limited only to text that's been embedded in logos and other art. If you need a lot of on-the-fly translation, this could be a major time saver. The feature has not been extended to Google Toolbar for Firefox, although Google said on its blog post announcing the feature that it hopes to implement it soon.
The new feature supports Albanian, Arabic, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Filipino, Finnish, French, Galician, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian and Vietnamese.
Neat, but you need a toolbar and IE to try it.
(Credit: Google)It will only work on Internet Explorer, and only in the U.S. right now, but if you're looking to extend the same timesaving search convenience of Google's mobile apps to your desktop, the new Google Toolbar (download) from Google Labs will do it.
The My Location feature found in Google Maps for Mobile--and recently integrated into Google Mobile App--uses cell tower triangulation or GPS to find your approximate or exact location. That localizes your search terms, so queries for "weather" or "coffee" pull up results close to you, and save you from typing those extra five digits every time you search for something nearby. Likewise, the My Location feature on the desktop uses information from nearby wireless hot spots to point you out.
I'm no fan of toolbars, believe me (well, maybe RoboForm) and I don't regularly use IE as my go-to browser, but for Google's My Location would the sacrifice be worth it? Truth be told, no, not for me at this point, but I might be tempted to try the souped-up toolbar were it to come out as a Firefox add-on down the road, or maybe switch to Chrome for a while if that were a built-in feature, not a toolbar.
How about you? Is having Google's search gods know where to route your queries a compelling enough feature to warrant downloading a toolbar--yes or no? And does privacy matter? Keep in mind that in using this Labs toolbar, you'll be sharing information with Google.
Correction:This post initially misstated where sponsored results show up. Sponsored results show up in toolbar searches and Google.com searches only.
Google on Tuesday released a new version if its software toolbar for Internet Explorer. Included is a feature carried over from the company's desktop search product--a search box that runs whether or not you have your browser open. This special box sits next to the Start button on your taskbar, and lets you search the Web, your browser bookmarks, and any files and applications you have on your PC.
In a blog post, the company said this release is an attempt to put the focus back on search. More importantly, it's getting people to start a Google search whether or not they've got their browser open--giving the company more chances to serve up ads. Part of that is already apparent, as users get sponsored results through toolbar searches, just like they would when searching from Google.com.
The new quick search option puts a search box on your taskbar.
(Credit: Google )Other new features include the recently visited pages and bookmarks start page that first shipped with Chrome, then came to Firefox with its latest Google toolbar release. Google has also added its synchronization service, which will let you access your same Google bookmarks and autofill form information from multiple computers.
Users already running Google's desktop search program can turn off the quick search box, or use it as a replacement. Google has posted instructions for doing that here.
If you've used a computer in the last decade, no doubt you've come face to face with the Google Toolbar. A Dell computer I bought a few years back came with both the toolbar and Google's desktop search program pre-installed. Also, an obscene amount of software comes with it as an optional add-on in the installation process since Google pays referrers a fat $1 per new user.
Next month, Google's toolbar turn eight years old and to celebrate, the company has launched a brand-new version for Internet Explorer, which brings it up to speed with last month's beta release for Firefox users.
Of all of the features, my personal favorite is the updated autofill system. This lets you have separate autofill profiles, which can be changed on the fly. This is useful if you're planning to use the toolbar at work, since you can keep one set of information for personal use (e.g. usernames, addresses, phone numbers), and another for business. It can also follow you from browser to browser as long as you're logged in with your Google credentials.
Other big changes include the introduction of gadgets, which users can affix to the top of their browser and summon with a click. It also throws in Web bookmark sync, and the updated sharing button, which lets you send entire pages to friends via SMS or without having to use an e-mail account.
Google's put together a pretty neat shot of how the toolbar has progressed since its introduction, which I've pasted below.
As the years have gone by Google has relied less on words as much as more recognizable icons. (click to enlarge)
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