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Mozilla The Internet

Yahoo! Releases Firefox version of Toolbar 302

Posted by CowboyNeal from the serious-sites-demand-toolbars dept.
kidlinux writes "Yahoo started offering a beta version of its toolbar for the open source browser Firefox on Microsoft Windows on Wednesday, with versions for Linux and MacOS X following 'shortly.' I think it's safe to say most people use Google in their Firefox toolbar search field. Yahoo probably wants to get their foot in the door before it's too late. It would be interesting if this was a result of user demand. And apparently this follows Amazon's Firefox toolbar, which actually is a result of user demand."
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Yahoo! Releases Firefox version of Toolbar More

Yahoo! Releases Firefox version of Toolbar

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  • SBC Yahoo. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by John Pliskin ( 769478 ) on Thursday February 10, 2005 @09:23PM (#11637285)
    I'd much rather see them take the effort to redo the SBC Yahoo! browser that's shipped with their DSL. My mother for example, prefers it over just a regular service because of it's interface.

    $

  • This is a great idea for Firefox (Score:5, Insightful)

    by aendeuryu ( 844048 ) on Thursday February 10, 2005 @09:24PM (#11637291)
    Everyone knows that Firefox is a great tool for the community (well, everybody who uses Firefox, anyway). What the Firefox people should try to in their marketing, though, is by showcasing how their openness can help corporations. If such toolbars could be easy as hell to make, a lot of companies with an online presence out there would be willing to give it a shot. Good for the company who has an easy way to search their products, good for firefox for being the middleman, good for the consumer who wants to search those products, and no harm to everybody else since you don't HAVE to install the toolbar...

  • Not needed. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by irokitt ( 663593 ) <archimandrites-iaur@@@yahoo...com> on Thursday February 10, 2005 @09:24PM (#11637292)
    Firefox already blocks pop-ups. And it takes only two mouse clicks to change from google search on the default configuration to a yahoo search. And it is worth noting to myself that I have *never* been tempted to do so. So I'm not going to download it. Probably rings true for most geeks out there, at least.

    • Re:Not needed. (Score:3, Informative)

      by neuroslime ( 304931 )
      They list another interesting feature:
      • Easily discover and add RSS feeds to My Yahoo!

      I would imagine that if you're already a My Yahoo! user, features like this would be awesome. Imagine a Yahoo mail notifier, Yahoo stock ticket, etc... There's a ton Yahoo could do with a Firefox plugin.

    • Re:Not needed. (Score:5, Informative)

      by mrchaotica ( 681592 ) on Thursday February 10, 2005 @10:01PM (#11637568)

      The Yahoo! toolbar does more than search. I, for example, will probably use it for the mail notification (I've got yahoo and gmail acounts, and there's no "Yahoo! notifier." Moreover, I feel good about using it just to "reward" them for supporting Firefox.

      [goes to download toolbar...]

      ...except that they only have a Windows version so far. Bah! : (

      • Re:Not needed. (Score:2, Interesting)

        by MerlinTheWizard ( 824941 )
        I don't care about "rewarding" anyone for supporting or even using Firefox. I use it because it's open, maintained by a bunch of clever guys, it lets me do everything I want to do and more... That's the only reward it needs. And the last thing it needs is certainly those commercial, binary-only, and prone to spyware toolbars and other applets. You can find anything you need amongst the non-commercial extensions. At any rate, I would maybe use a "Yahoo thing" if and only if they open the source code. If not,

      • Yahoo [latitudezero.org] and gmail [mozilla.org] notification plugins for Firefox. So what functionality does the Yahoo toolbar add again?

    • The unofficial Google toolbar for Firefox is #12 in the download rankings at update.mozilla.org. So there is definately a market for stuff like these, even among the geeks.

  • Why not just add it as an Engine? (Score:4, Funny)

    by Bradac_55 ( 729235 ) on Thursday February 10, 2005 @09:25PM (#11637297) Journal
    It seems this is oriented (along with the Amazon toolbar) to the non-IT end-users flocking to Firefox that thing it's just another IE clone. At least the ones I support have no idea what the little bar at the top right does or that they can add engines. - Brad

  • How hard is it to KEEP from getting? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by drsmack1 ( 698392 ) * on Thursday February 10, 2005 @09:25PM (#11637299)
    When cleaning up customer's computers, the Yahoo toolbar is on my list of things to uninstall. I find that most times users have no idea how it got there. I replace it with the google toolbar.

    It seems to me that the google toolbar is there to help the user find information whereas the yahoo toolbar is there to promote yahoo and it's many services.

    • Re:How hard is it to KEEP from getting? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by mrklin ( 608689 ) <ken...lin@@@gmail...com> on Thursday February 10, 2005 @10:20PM (#11637671)
      You should also delete their AOL account since AOL is for noobs.

      Also, remove the Solitaire and all the other games because they are not productive to work.

      After that, uninstall Microsoft Office and install OpenOffice.

      I mean it is not like Yahoo! Search (based on Altavista and Inktomi's algorhithm) returns relevant result or anything. Or that Yahoo! Plus e-mail users get 2GB of storage or that Yahoo! Music (Launch) is the biggest music site on the net.

    • They got it from installing a Macromedia plug in.
      The Yahoo! toolbar is included with the (IIRC)Shockwave installer and it is installed by default. Although it's not too bad as you can choose not to as it asks you if you want it, but most people never bother to read the page and just click next.

  • Oh great, some (Score:2, Funny)

    by i_bill ( 829526 )
    Oh great, now half the reason that I use FireFox is gone. Yahoo! comes out with this great toolbar that sucks down my viewing area and my bandwidth. I'll bet that it's also pretty big, unlike the normal (unsponsored by any company) FireFox extensions...

  • Yawn (Score:4, Insightful)

    by hendridm ( 302246 ) on Thursday February 10, 2005 @09:25PM (#11637304) Homepage
    Yahoo! Toolbar Beta for Mozilla Firefox Browser

    * Search the Web from anywhere online
    * Easily discover and add RSS feeds to My Yahoo!
    * Customize and access your Toolbar from any PC
    * Anti-Spy for Firefox coming soon

    Let's see, Firefox already does the first two, and the third is arguably useful. The "anti-spy" feature doesn't seem all that useful for Firefox, since it's not easy to accidentally install spyware via XPI. I think Gator has more useful features. Am I missing something?

    • Yeah, plus it's windows only... wtf is hidden in there? I want to see the source code.

    • Re:Yawn (Score:3, Informative)

      by NutscrapeSucks ( 446616 )
      > The "anti-spy" feature doesn't seem all that useful for Firefox

      There's many vectors for spyware other than the browser. It's only a matter of time before Kazaa and the like start coming with Firefox add-ins.

    • Er, what? (Score:5, Informative)

      by brunes69 ( 86786 ) <`gro.daetsriek' `ta' `todhsals'> on Friday February 11, 2005 @12:20AM (#11638400)

      Let's see, Firefox already does the first two, and the third is arguably useful.

      Er... so how do I add RSS feeds to My Yahoo! with Firefox again? Oh wait, I can't.

      My Yahoo! is a pretty powerful portal (you have probably never really tried it). I much prefer it to Google news.. it is highly customizeable, I can integrate RSS feeds from anywhere, I can add my own personal calender and to-do list that is synched with my desktop and PDA automatically, it has quick access to my photo album, my local TV listings, the local movie showtimes.. all on one page. It is incredibly useful.

      Their Yahoo! toolbar will probably also have a few other things Firefox can't do out of the box, like new mail notification for Yahoo! mail, notifications for calendar events, and possible Yahoo! IM integration.

      All that aside, I won't be installing it. But don't dismiss it as redundant so quickly, you haven't even seen it yet.

      And for God's sake, don't compare it to Gator, the spawn of Satan.

  • I found the IE google toolbar to be more useful than the one that comes built into Firefox. Wish they would add in all that extra functionality... I remember trying out a beta version of it for FF and coming away a little unsatisfied. However, the overall advantages of using FF vastly outweigh the few and insignificant disadvantages.
    • The killer app that the Firefox implementation leaves out is the ability to see the pagerank meter reading for the page that you're on.

      It'd be nice if Google released an official Mozilla/Firefox version of their toolbar... I wonder if the existance of the popular immitator is discuraging them from doing it right?
    • This article has really got me interested now.

      Where do I get this google toolbar? It's not in the default install (at least in 1.0... maybe my version is too old), not on google.com that I can find either.
    • This is one of the nice things about Yahoo's toolbar actually being supported by Yahoo, instead of being a 3rd part effort. It actually has all the features of the Windows one.

  • Nice idea....I guess (Score:3, Interesting)

    by WordODD ( 706788 ) on Thursday February 10, 2005 @09:26PM (#11637308)
    Like previous posters have said it really adds no functionality to Firefox, but I guess it adds another endorsement to Firefox's already long list of supporters. If nothing else then all the diehard Yahoo fans will now be even more exposed to Firefox and may perhaps make the switch. But what I really wonder is, what's in it for Yahoo? Is this a last attempt to be revitalize their popularity?
  • Given the higher popularity of Firefox among the tech-savvy crowd, and the ongoing boycott of Amazon for their "one-click" patent:

    How could the demand among the more tech-savvy crowd result in an Amazon toolbar for Firefox?

    Not that I'm trying to start a flame-war. It's just resulting in some cognitive dissonance in my over-taxed brain.

  • Ads? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by LaserLyte ( 725803 ) * on Thursday February 10, 2005 @09:26PM (#11637312)
    In the past, the main reason I have avoided Yahoo is simply because of all the ads. They slowed down the search to a crawl, and I could barely find any content amongst the ads.

    The toolbar 'screenshot' convieniently cuts off the end of the bar... is this to hide ads and other crap? Or are we spared? :)

    Either way, I think I'd prefer to just add Yahoo to FireFox's in-built search engine bar. Not that I would use it... since I have Google!

    But seriously, Yahoo seems to be going in the right direction. The engine seems to have increased in speed lately. In fact, search results are as quick to load as on Google. What's more, the number of ads on the results page has decreased; just a few textual ads remain.

    In fact... Yahoo is looking a lot like Google.

    Now I wish Netcraft would write a version of their toolbar [netcraft.com] for FireFox.

  • Launch? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Lehk228 ( 705449 ) on Thursday February 10, 2005 @09:26PM (#11637322) Journal
    overall it seems pointless but at the same time it does add to the momentum of Firefox being a real contender. I would rather yahoo do something useful like fix Launch so it works with Firefox.

  • Bookmarks (Score:2, Interesting)

    by samtihen ( 798412 )
    I've been using the unofficial version (http://companion.mozdev.org/) for some time now, and it actually works almost exactly the same. The official Yahoo one seems to work just about perfectly as far as I can tell.

    What would really like to see is the ability to have your Firefox bookmarks synchronize with your Yahoo bookmarks automatically, so that you could have them wherever you go.

    Additionally, I wish it would highlight the search terms like the Google toolbar.

  • Open Sourced? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Kentsusai ( 837912 ) <kentsusai.gmail@com> on Thursday February 10, 2005 @09:28PM (#11637341)
    Great to see many companies endorsing Firefox and supporting it!

    But if the toolbars are not opensourced, then I will not touch them. Sorry to sound like a troll.

    • Re:Open Sourced? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Aero Leviathan ( 698882 ) on Thursday February 10, 2005 @10:21PM (#11637677) Journal
      Go to your Firefox application data, then the extentions subfolder. Your themes and extensions are there as JAR files. Open the JAR files in Winzip, and you'll see that they're made up of XUL, JS and CSS files, which are easily openable in a text editor to reveal their source code.

      A quick look at the Yahoo Toolbar shows that it is no different. Obviously it's not under the GPL, but you can easily have a look and verify that it doesn't do anything malicious. But let me guess... you can't be bothered, as you couldn't even be bothered to find out how Firefox extensions work before, well... sounding like a troll.

      • Re:Open Sourced? (Score:3, Insightful)

        by QuantumG ( 50515 )
        I have Mod points but I think a reply is more in order. Just because you can see the source code does not mean that something is Free Software. I know we were talking about Open Source but that group of people have defined Open Source to be the same as Free Software but without putting the concept of freedom at the forefront of discussion. I think your post here demonstrates the effect of this strategy. People focus more on whether or not the source code is available than the freedoms that people have t
      • This is how most extensions work, but why they would they make it for Windows only if it was just based on XUL, JS and CSS? These are all cross-platform standards supported by all Firefox versions. Or is the implementation under Windows slightly different?

        Not trying to spread FUD: I tried out the toolbar, and it doesn't appear to do anything bad (except for ask you whether you want to set your home page to Yahoo when it first runs). It's not something I'll use regularly, but it's nice that people have the

  • A choice finally? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Blindman ( 36862 ) on Thursday February 10, 2005 @09:28PM (#11637342) Journal
    The significance I think which is going unnoticed is that someone thinks it is worth it to support something other than Internet Explorer. Perhaps, this can spread?
    • I think Google would have done it a long time ago too, had it not been for the fact that their toolbar's two main features -- popup blocking and quick access to google search -- are already implemented in Firefox.

      Yahoo on the other hand has a lot to gain here: how many Firefox users are going to switch the default search from Google to Yahoo? How about if Yahoo gives them a cool toolbar?

  • On Linux, this is the story (Score:5, Informative)

    by bogaboga ( 793279 ) on Thursday February 10, 2005 @09:29PM (#11637348)
    Though Yahoo says the toolbar is for Firefox on Windwos, it works well on Firefox for Linux. Why won't Yahoo say the toolbar also works on Linux? We'd help them iron out the bugs if any. I have not found any problems so far on either platform.
    • Why won't Yahoo say the toolbar also works on Linux? We'd help them iron out the bugs if any.

      According to them, they have known, significant bugs that show up on Linux. They don't want you to get pissed at them, so their giving you fair warning. If you want to help iron the bugs out, download and install it anyway like I did. They sure aren't going to stop you.

  • Now I feel Ignorant (Score:3, Interesting)

    by syntap ( 242090 ) on Thursday February 10, 2005 @09:30PM (#11637356)
    I think it's safe to say most people use Google in their Firefox toolbar search field.

    Geez, I didn't even realize Yahoo was in there... I just click it down for eBay or Dictionary.com when I don't use Google... I guess my mind kind of filtered out Yahoo... scary.

  • One can already use Yahoo in the FF search field (Score:4, Informative)

    by jinushaun ( 397145 ) on Thursday February 10, 2005 @09:31PM (#11637371)
    You can download more search engines for the FF search field, but Yahoo is installed by default. For instance, I regularly switch from Google to Amazon and Wikipedia. I also have a German dictionary installed.

    However, I think it's good that Yahoo is making a FF toolbar. It's just a sign of Firefox's acceptance in the market--that's a good thing.

  • Yeah, well (Score:3, Interesting)

    by lifebouy ( 115193 ) on Thursday February 10, 2005 @09:34PM (#11637398) Journal
    Call me when Yahoo Launch! works on firefox. Till then, I'm pretty much not interested in Yahoo.

  • NOT useless (Score:5, Interesting)

    by friendofafriend ( 602350 ) on Thursday February 10, 2005 @09:34PM (#11637401)
    The yahoo toolbar it not simply another search bar, and I have had the unofficial [mozdev.org] version along side the google bar for a while now

    I use it for the bookmarks, which are then common on any firefox or IE computer with the toolbar, but it also has shortcuts to useful Yahoo! tools like briefcase, calendar etc.

  • I actually don't use the search field built into Firefox. I find it to be horrid from a usability point-of-view. I don't understand why they didn't follow the way Mozilla handles searching.

    In Firefox you have to move your hand to the right, click on the small text bar and type in the search term, which also annoyingly stays there until you manually clear it. It also wastes space; there's no need for a second text box. (I mention moving your hand right because you can feel more stress on your tendons than m
    • Why are you moving your hand to the right?

      Control-L, and Tab.

      Unless you were referring to moving the mouse pointer to that segment of the window. Then I would be complaining about having to move my mouse to the left for the address bar!
      • Why should you have to learn an uncommon key combination? When issues of usability are discussed, we're talking about your average Joe who mouses around for most tasks.

        The point is, by creating two text bars they have added unneeded complexity to the interface. More control does not have to mean more clutter. This is a major tenet of Apple design. The iPod is a classic example. Why have separate buttons for every function when a more streamlined interface is available that is at once both more elegant and

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
      Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Simple solution: Google is my homepage. When I go online I'm normally looking for something so I just start there. Plenty of bookmarks for places I go regularly. No big deal at all.
    • I agree it's a bad UI design - personally, I've removed the google thing from firefox completely. What I do is have the keyword for a google search set as "g" - that way, to search for something I simply type in

      g some-phrase some random words

      into the location bar, and up pops the search results. If you don't already have the google quicksearch bookmark, make one with the location:

      http://www.google.com/search?q=%s

      - note that you can do this with any search by substituting the search terms with %s,

  • So they have one too.. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by aero2600-5 ( 797736 ) on Thursday February 10, 2005 @09:48PM (#11637494)
    Has it occurred to anyone that the only reason Yahoo! might release a search bar could be so that the lack one can't be used against them? I know this sounds stupid, but hearing a user say "I use Google instead of Yahoo! Search because Yahoo! doesn't have a toolbar" is a likely reason enough for Yahoo! to release an inferior search toolbar. Just so they can say they have one too.

    It's a feature contest. Neither one wants to be the one with the less features.

    Aero

    Yahoo! -- Now with more stupid, poorly-written, inferior features!

    Sidenote: I am a regular Yahoo! Mail user.
    • is a likely reason enough for Yahoo! to release an inferior search toolbar.

      Umm. It's not a search toolbar. You could already search on Yahoo! using Firefox.

      Yes, you can search from this toolbar, but it's actually tied in to their My Yahoo! service, for which their is no Google equivalent. It's actually quite useful.

      That being said, I agree that enither one wants to be the one with less features.
  • Two things google has going for it over yahoo... first is the main page - google is just what you need, no extra crap. Second is the search results - both google and yahoo have "sponsor results", but where yahoo places them above the "real" hits, google places them off to the right so you don't even have to skip over them visually to get to the meat. Much cleaner interface all-around.
  • Who uses the Yahoo toolbar? I do, since its inception. I like the single-click to the My Yahoo page I've been tweaking since the late '90s but the biggest reason I use it is centralized access and maintenance of my bookmarks.

    I use the Google toolbar, too. I almost immediately install both when I starting using a new system, though if real estate is scarce, I'll skip the Google toolbar. Having the Yahoo toolbar available on Firefox removes a big roadblock to using Firefox regularly.

  • Is there a point to these toolbars that I'm missing?

    I visited a relative recently who is running Windows and IE still, and who had no less than 5 different "toolbars" on their browser.

    Frankly, I don't see the point at all. I haven't seen a single thing that any of these toolbars add which bookmarks and the built-in search field in Firefox don't, other than a whole lot of useless clutter. Indeed, most Winndows/IE users I know who have all of these bars installed don't even use them (and often don't remem

    • As a tech at a whitebox store my thoughts on toolbars are simple. They are ALL spyware. Now before the flamers attack, Google wasn't 6 months ago, but it's pop-up blocker now lets some through(probably paid for). I have zero experience with using Yahoo, but I do lump them with the others. MySearchBar, Websearch and any similar items are all eliminated by Ad-Aware and Spybot. ISTbar is particularly malignant. When I find extra bars on any browser they get killed first as part of any cleanup. Had one customer
    • The only one I use is googlebar - and I use that on firefox as well as IE. The killer feature for me is the auto highlight of search terms, and the clicky buttons to find them. I even use the googlebar instead of ctrl-f to find terms on the current page - just type and click.
    • Google toolbar puts the search terms on the bar, so you can click on a term and it'll find the next instance of the term on the page. Also there are buttons to highlight terms like they are in the Google Cache. There are plugins that do this with the normal search box, but they don't work nearly as well as in the toolbar.
  • Guess I'll google it to find out what it is :-)

  • Functionality (Score:3, Insightful)

    by deutschemonte ( 764566 ) <lane.montgomery@nOspAM.gmail.com> on Thursday February 10, 2005 @10:23PM (#11637689) Homepage
    This does add functionality to Firefox. Now all my bookmarks that I have stored with Yahoo! can follow me anywhere I sign in with the yahoo bar. I dual boot with win xp and debian. I use both IE and Firefox in XP and only Firefox in Debian so this will make it easier to keep my bookmarks up to date across the browsers.
    • I used to use Yahoo Bookmarks, but then I discovered del.icio.us [del.icio.us].

      But I still use the unofficial Yahoo Toolbar for FF- it's configurable, and I use enough Yahoo services (though typically not search) that it's worth having.

      IMHO, Yahoo services (address book, etc.) tend not to be the best available, but are generally good enough and pretty convenient.
  • Awww... my firefox search bar has yahoo in it... how did that get in there? :/

    Does anyone use yahoo these days? I thought it was only usful for school kidies (as its what i used to use :)).

  • Updates As Often As Messenger (Score:3, Insightful)

    by ONOIML8 ( 23262 ) on Thursday February 10, 2005 @11:08PM (#11637965) Homepage
    Wonderful. Look at what they did with the Linux version of Messenger, they released it with minimal features and have been extremely slow in updates or feature additions. Based on that performance I have a hard time believing that Yahoo is going to do anything wonderful with this toolbar on the Firefox/Linux version.

  • What if..... (Score:3, Funny)

    by CastrTroy ( 595695 ) on Thursday February 10, 2005 @11:18PM (#11638038)
    What would your browser look like if you downloaded all the toolbars and enabled all of them?
  • the mozdev version, that is. It seems to work well for me. I have access to the parts of Yahoo that I want with one click. I appreciate the fact that they provided a link from their site to mozdev for those of us who wanted the toolbar.
    BTW, I still mostly use Google for searching, too.

  • Speak for yourself, not me. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Malc ( 1751 ) on Thursday February 10, 2005 @11:48PM (#11638236)
    "I think it's safe to say most people use Google in their Firefox toolbar search field."

    No it's not. I actually hate it. Somebody obviously thought it would be a good idea, but couldn't think of a good place to put it. It's too small. It's stuck up there on the right when most people's focus (esp. left-to-right readers) starts at the top left. This is an even bigger issue on larger higher resolution screens. Let's be honest, it's just crap.

    I install Mozdev.org's Googlebar. It works much better, although I tend to hide all the annoying icons.

  • OSS Yahoo! Toolbar (Score:2, Informative)

    by brianerst ( 549609 )
    As one of the more minor members of the community-created Yahoo! Companion for Mozilla [mozdev.org], I'd like to point out that there is another option if you distrust/dislike the official version.

    Peter Buergner, Dave Viner, Brian Kennelly and a host of others have created an excellent alternative for folks who like the functionality of the Yahoo! Toolbar but prefer Firefox/Mozilla. The current version (0.54) is a bit out of date - a new version should be hitting the servers soon. It is much further along than the of

  • I don't know about you, but I find the search button available for Firefox to be all that I need.

    I've installed additional search features to scan for IMDB entries, Dictionary.com and eBay.

    Not saying Yahoo! search bar is a bad thing, but the reason I don't like some extra plugins is they take up another line of space at the top of the browser - lean is key!

  • It's been pointed out that this toolbar works fine on Linux; of course it does, since it's written for the browser. People are asking why Yahoo! didn't acknowledge this on their download page, and the answer (probably an accurate asessment of Yahoo!'s thinking) is that there may be bugs and they don't want to get a flood of complaints. I don't buy this.

    For too long companies have had the power to provide information for unsupported users (read: Linux) but have avoided this for fear that it might be cons

  • This is interesting, seems like everyone + dog is jumping onto the "toolbar for IE/Firefox" bandwagon.

    What I want to know is, does it have spyware? I seem to remember Yahoo! being in cahoots with some spyware jockeys a year or so ago.

    What will this do to Firefox's reputation? I trust firefox and I advocate it heavily to all and sundry. But now, if toolbars like this contain spyware or malware, won't that just turn Firefox into another security hole?

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