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Internet Explorer Toolbars:

A Complete Overview Of Search Engine Toolbars

Originally Published: September 2, 2003

Many search engines now offer web browser toolbars so that you can instantly use their search engines whenever you have your browser window open.

The search engine toolbars search the World Wide Web but they also offer additional useful features, for example there are pop-up window blockers, dictionary and stock quote lookup tools, translation features and much more.

The most popular toolbar is the Google toolbar. However, other search engine toolbars offer features which the Google toolbar doesn't, for example searching for mobile phone ringtones, getting movie showtimes or searching the Yellow Pages.

If you want, you can install several search engine toolbars at once in order to combine their features and to search different search engines. Make sure that you carefully read the terms and conditions of the toolbars because some of them record your surfing behavior.

Here's a complete list of the currently available major search engine toolbars:

Alexa toolbar

• Searches the Google search engine.
• Tools: pop-up window blocker, dictionary, thesaurus, news search, stock quotes
• Web page features: searches the currently displayed web page; displays traffic information, contact information and user reviews for the current web site; displays related links for the current web site; emails web page to a friend; shows archived versions of the current web page so that you can see how the web site looked like years ago
• Requires Internet Explorer 5.0+
• Download

AltaVista toolbar

• Searches the AltaVista search engine.
• Tools: pop-up window blocker, news search, image search, multimedia search, dictionary, weather, area code search, zip code search, currency exchange, conversion tool, global time
• Web page features: searches the current web page, searches the current web site, highlights search terms on the web page
• Special: The AltaVista toolbar is available in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Swedish.
• Requires Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP, Internet Explorer 5.0+
• Download

Ask Jeeves toolbar

• Searches the Ask Jeeves search engine and the Ask Jeeves Kids search engine.
• Tools: news search, dictionary lookup, stock quotes, weather, events search, USA map
• Web page features: zooms the current web page, highlights search terms on the web page, emails web page to a friend
• Requires Windows 98/ME/NT/2000/XP, Internet Explorer 5.0+
• Download

Dogpile toolbar

• Meta-searches 13 search engines, including Google, AllTheWeb, Inktomi, Ask Jeeves, Overture and Teoma.
• Tools: image search, news search, shopping search, multimedia search, file search, Yellow Pages, White Pages, weather, maps, stock quotes, public records, horoscopes, dictionary, thesaurus, acronym finder
• Web page features: highlights search terms on the web page, emails web page to a friend
• Requires Windows 98/ME/NT/2000/XP, Internet Explorer 5.01+
• Download

Google toolbar

• Searches the Google search engine, the Google directory and lets you restrict searches to pages located in a specific country.
• Tools: pop-up window blocker, news search, image search, quickly fills in forms, adds links to a Blogger.com weblog, newsgroup search, dictionary, displays the Google PageRank score
• Web page features: highlights search terms on the web page, shows a cached version of the web page, finds similar pages, displays pages that link to the current page and searches within the pages of the current web site
• Requires Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP, IE 5.0+ (the pop-up window blocker requires Internet Explorer 5.5 or later)
• Download

HotBot deskbar

• Searches Google, HotBot, Lycos, Ask Jeeves, Ebay, Amazon, Tucows and more than 200 other web sites. Unlike the other search engine toolbars, the HotBot deskbar installs into the Windows task bar.
• Tools: dictionary, thesaurus, weather, maps, stock quotes, calculator
• Requires Windows (no other requirements specified)
• Download

Lycos.de toolbar

• Searches the Lycos.de search engine.
• Allows you to create your own MyLycos page with individual contents.
• Special: It's only available in German.
• Requires Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP, Internet Explorer 5.5+
• Download

Mini Jeeves toolbar (UK)

• Searches the Ask Jeeves UK search engine and provides quick access to the Ask Jeeves shopping channel and the travel channel.
• Tools: dictionary, thesaurus, finds mobil phone ringtones and icons
• Web page features: highlights search terms on the web page, emails web page to a friend
• Requires Windows 98/ME/NT/2000/XP, Internet Explorer 5.0+
• Download

Teoma search bar

• Searches the Teoma search engine
• Tools: dictionary Web page features: highlights search terms on the web page, emails web page to a friend
• Requires Windows 98/ME/NT/2000/XP, Internet Explorer 5.0+
• Download

Yahoo companion

• Searches the Yahoo directory.
• Tools: accesses Yahoo Mail, saves your bookmarks online, news search, image search, Yellow Pages search, address book, maps, dictionary, stock quotes, movie showtimes
• Web page features: highlight search terms on the web page
• Requires Internet Explorer 4.0+
• Download

All toolbars described above (except for the HotBot toolbar) are only available for Internet Explorer browsers. If you use Netscape 7, Mozilla or Mozilla Firebird, you might want to try the un-official Google toolbar. If you use an Apple Macintosh, you might want to try this one.

AllTheWeb is the only major search engine that doesn't offer its own toolbar yet. However, AllTheWeb offers various other tools for Internet Explorer, Netscape, Mozilla and Opera browsers.

Next week [How To Improve Your Link Popularity With Articles], we're going to tell you what this overview has to do with improving the link popularity of your site.

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October 31 2025 06:45 UTC