Every day traveling through the Internet, we need convenient and quick access to the most necessary information, which includes data on weather, exchange rates and more. It is extremely inconvenient to go to several different sites each time, and therefore you have to look for affordable, reliable and simple alternatives.
One of them is the Toolbar. What is it and what is it for? Let's figure it out!
General concepts
Such a tricky word is called an ordinary browser panel. If you have anything to do with the computer, then you probably have an idea about the Yandex-bar, the Sputnik from Mail.ru and other similar products. This is all the Toolbar. What is this about functionality?
What are toolbars for?
By the way, why did all these browser panels come up with? Really it was impossible to do with simple bookmarks? We partially answered these questions at the beginning of the article. It’s much more convenient to configure the toolbar once to display the data you need than to constantly visit the site. In addition, the panel consumes much less traffic, which is extremely critical for users with USB modems.
Note that the latter is true only for normal toolbars that do not have adware and spy bookmarks.
How to install?
So we figured out the purpose of these useful applications. But it’s much harder to install a normal Toolbar. What does it mean? The fact is that in recent years, malicious applications have constantly been disguised as them, which we would strongly recommend against installing on a computer.
Almost every second site offers to install your own toolbar, but you can do this only on those resources whose creators you really trust. In particular, on the official website of the above companies, Yandex and Mail.ru.
As a rule, there are no complications with the installation itself. To do this, just go to the website of the manufacturer you are interested in, and then click on the option “Install Yandex toolbar”, or something like that. After that, the application will be automatically installed in your browser. Most often, to continue working, you will need to restart the application, after which a new panel will appear in your Internet browser.
As you can see, installing the toolbar is very simple. Typically, user involvement is minimal.
How to set up?
In order for the toolbar to meet all your requirements and provide the information you need, it needs to be configured correctly. Let's deal with this issue on the example of the Chrome Toolbar from the well-known domestic company Mail.ru. Of course, many users do not unreasonably consider all its products to be weakly trustworthy, but nevertheless, in some situations, its use is justified.
The most common toolbar is Sputnik. Its functionality is quite wide: search from Mail.ru, mail from the same company, access to social networks, stock quotes and weather forecasts. You can install it from the official website of the company, using the "More" item in its upper right corner. After installation, you must restart the browser.
The settings are pretty scanty: by clicking on the “Weather Forecast” button, you can tell the program for which particular city you need weather information. Also, by clicking on the "Mail" button, you can specify your username and password in the email inbox, after which the information about the letters you received will be displayed directly on the browser panel. Attention! This toolbar does not allow the use of third-party mailboxes, so if necessary you will have to look for an alternative.
What toolbars are really useful?
Given the gigantic amount of trash on the Internet, it will be useful to talk about those toolbars that carry real functional load.
Firstly, this is a panel from the Rambler. A search engine known in the recent past now has far fewer fans, but its toolbar is pretty good. It also allows you to find out the weather forecast and currency quotes, you can connect your email inbox to it. The panel has a very austere design, does not stand out against the general background of "Chrome". It does not contain any intrusive advertising, and, if necessary, is completely removed from the system.
Of course, toolbars from Google and Yandex are very useful. Their capabilities are no different from those for the panels described above, they are also completely clean in terms of undesirable and dangerous functionality.
Yahoo
Of course, in our country, Yahoo does not have the number of loyal fans that this service has in the US, but some of the users of the "old school" do not change their old habits.
The fact is that even a dozen or two years ago, when the Internet was just appearing in Russia, it was Yahoo that was almost the only sane search engine. Today the toolbar from this company also provides information search capabilities, offers weather forecasts (you need a Zip code of your city), as well as quotes.
As in previous cases, this panel has a fairly simple look, not standing out from the background of the browser where it was installed. If there is such a need, it is easy to temporarily disable it or even completely remove it. Fortunately, her code does not contain any spy bookmarks.
Virus or not?
As we already said, not all toolbars are equally useful. Very often, various malicious applications spread under the guise of such programs, the presence of which on the computer is extremely undesirable. They steal passwords, redirect users to phishing sites, which can even leave you without a penny, transferring all your credit card information to third parties.
How to distinguish a normal browser panel from its malicious variety? It's simple: try deleting it. The regular Google Toolbar can be uninstalled from the browser without problems, while virus or spyware will be detected again and again in it. In addition, a sign of “illegality” can be a huge amount of advertising, which appears just after installing the toolbar. Of course, the behavior of an antivirus can serve as an important alarm signal.
This is what the Toolbar is for. What it is and how to configure it, you just found out.