Subscribe

Google Toolbar Gets Personal

Users Can Now Customize their Search Experience with Latest Version of Google Toolbar

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., January 30, 2006 – Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) today announced the latest version of Google Toolbar and a new Google Toolbar for Enterprise. The new beta versions of Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer are open and customizable, with new features that enable users to customize their search experience and share information with friends.

Google Toolbar was designed to make the Internet easier to use and help people find the information they are looking for as quickly and easily as possible. The new versions of Google Toolbar now offer customizable buttons, online bookmarks, enhanced search features, new sharing capabilities, and an open API. Google Toolbar for Enterprise beta also includes administration and control for business environments.

“Now we’re putting the tools of innovation in the hands of our users,” said Marissa Mayer, VP of search products and user experience at Google. “We’ve opened up the Google Toolbar to enable them to create their own features and customize their search experience.”

Users can now personalize their Toolbar through the addition of Custom Buttons. Custom Buttons enable users to run search queries directly on any website, receive alerts, and subscribe to feeds, right from their Toolbar. For example, news enthusiasts can now add Custom Buttons to search all their favorite news and see top news stories directly from their Toolbar, putting the information they need at their finger tips, right when they want it.

Google offers users three ways to get Custom Buttons. They can create their own by simply right clicking the search box on any website and selecting “Generate Custom Search”. They can install a Toolbar button offered on one of their favorite websites. Or, they can select ready made buttons from Google’s new Button Gallery. Currently, morebuttons are available, including a variety of Custom Buttons for popular websites. The Button Gallery will display new third-party Custom Buttons as they are created. A simple XML API is now available for content publishers to create more advanced Custom Buttons for their sites.

The new version of Google Toolbar also enables users to create, label and manage bookmarks for their favorite sites with a single click. Bookmarks are now saved to a user’s Google Account making them accessible from any computer. For example, if a user bookmarks an interesting news article at work that they want to read later, they can now easily access it from their home computer.

Additional product enhancements include expanded search functionality that offer users helpful query suggestions and spelling corrections as they type in the search box. Enhanced sharing capabilities allow users to easily send and share web page content via Gmail, SMS, or a blog by selecting the section of page they want to share and clicking the new "Send To" button.

With this release, Google is also offering a new version of the Toolbar for enterprise environments. Google Toolbar for Enterprise beta includes all the new functionality of Google Toolbar, offering the same level of personalization and customization to corporate users. In addition, Google Toolbar for Enterprise includes group policy for administrative control of features, as well as Microsoft System Installer for easy corporate deployment. For example, an enterprise could distribute customized Toolbars to their users pre-loaded with Custom Buttons for Intranet sites, employee directories, and frequently used information sources.

The beta versions of Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer and Google Toolbar for Enterprise for Internet Explorer are currently available in English and will be offered globally in more than 16 languages by the end of the quarter. Both versions of Google Toolbar run on Windows XP and support Internet Explorer 6.0 and higher. More information on the new versions of Google Toolbar is available at toolbar.google.com/T4/.

About Google Inc.

Google’s innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top web property in all major global markets. Google’s targeted advertising program provides businesses of all sizes with measurable results, while enhancing the overall web experience for users. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the Americas, Europe, and Asia. For more information, visit www.google.com.

Media Contact:

Sonya Borälv
sonya@google.com
650-253-1821

###

Google is a registered trademark of Google Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.

Labels: ,