I was having problems getting to some web sites, like
http://www.creative.com. IE6 would time out with a page not found or
DNS error. Going through http://www.anonymizer.com proved the site was
up and responsive. A DNS lookup worked okay, too. A local traceroute
showed that I could reach that site. I cleared my firewall's logs and
then tried another connect. What I saw for the URL for the connect was:
http://216.239.37.104/search?client=...ative%2Ecom%2F

This showed that I was first getting sent to the IP addressed site which
then redirected me to the URL that I had specified. The IP address
often changes but a check on them at ARIN's WhoIs showed they were
allocated to Google. I used BHO Demon to disable the Google toolbar BHO
(browser helper object) but the URL still showed that I was going
through Google's host first. I then uninstalled the Google Toolbar and,
voila, the URL used for the connection as evidenced in my firewall log
showed the URL that I had entered instead of going through Google's
hosts.

Originally I thought the problem with reaching the web site was caused
by Norton Anti-Virus (NAV) because of the "navclient" in the URL
parameters. Disabling NAV didn't help. As I was searching through the
registry to find references to "google", I found "nav" subkeys. That's
what triggered me to uninstall Google and retest to see if the URLs used
were what I specified instead of getting redirected through their hosts
(and it worked).

I did NOT have the Page Ranking or Categories options enabled. This
incurs privacy concerns as Google mentions in that the sites you visit
will get recorded (so they can update their rankings and determine what
other sites might be like the one you just visited, and why they have to
know where you visited). With these privacy divulging options disabled,
Google should have no idea to where I am navigating, especially when not
using anything of their service.

SpyBot's threat list only mentions that the tracking list leaves you
susceptible to someone else prying on your computer to check the Google
history list to see where you have been. I could not post to their
support forum (because I never got the confirmation e-mail letting me
validate a new registration) but sent the SpyBot folks an e-mail asking
if the Google Toolbar should be updated to reflect that the Google
Toolbar can and will track your web navigation. I uninstalled their
Google Toolbar and now the URLs for the connects are just what I
specified and no longer go through Google's hosts. I can also now get
to sites that were unreachable before (because their host was somehow
screwed up).

So until Google responds as to why my URLs are getting forced through
their servers (when no privacy divulging options are enabled), I
consider their toolbar as spyware in that it lets them record where you
have navigated. I'll still use Google for searches but only by opening
a page to their web site and NOT by using their toolbar. I used their
toolbar for a long time and found it quite handy. It's still handy if
you don't mind them recording everywhere that you navigate.

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