Is the Google Toolbar spyware (tracks your navigation)?

[Data64]

"Vanguard" <rztqf6v02-nix@sneakemail-nix.com> wrote in news:vXQ7b.415338
$uu5.74857@sccrnsc04:

I am not trying to be a troll, just curious. Why exactly do you use
google bar ?

To search google I go to the address box and type
"g spyware" to search for spyware. If I wanted to search in google groups
then I would type "gg spyware" and so on.
This works in IE too (although I use it in Mozilla) using the QuickSearch
web accessory from Microsoft.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/...cess/ie5wa.asp




data64

[Dick Justice]

"Data64" <me@privacy.net> wrote in message
news:Xns93F2E606A1DBFData64Bigfootcom@130.133.1.4. ..
> "Vanguard" <rztqf6v02-nix@sneakemail-nix.com> wrote in news:vXQ7b.415338
> $uu5.74857@sccrnsc04:
>
> I am not trying to be a troll, just curious. Why exactly do you use
> google bar ?
>
> To search google I go to the address box and type
> "g spyware" to search for spyware. If I wanted to search in google groups
> then I would type "gg spyware" and so on.
> This works in IE too (although I use it in Mozilla) using the QuickSearch
> web accessory from Microsoft.
> http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/...cess/ie5wa.asp

I wasn't aware of that search feature!

[Vanguard]

I have the IE5 Web Accessories installed (for IE6). Entering "g
<anything>" just brings up the MSN search results. For me, that
technique doesn't work to use Google. Then I hunted around a bit more.
I opened the Search pane and clicked the Customize button. I saw the
Autosearch Settings buttons and clicked on that. You then get a
drop-down listbox of providers to use for the auto-search where you can
then select Google. However, entering "g firewall" and "gg firewall"
resulted in both just doing a Google Web Search; i.e., the "gg firewall"
did not display a search result from Google Groups. In fact, using "g
firewall" resulted in a Google Web Search on "g firewall" and using "gg
firewall" resulted in a search on "gg firewall". It looks like you are
still expected to use "? <string>", "go <string>", or "find firewall" to
do the auto-search from the Address bar. All the [Google] search will
default to using the Google Web category. You have to click the
QuickSearch link that the Web Accessories install put into your Links
toolbar and add the definitions:

For Google Web Search: g = http://www.google.com/search?q=%s
For Google Groups Search: gg = http://groups.google.com/groups?q=%s
For Google Images Search: gi = http://images.google.com/images?q=%s
For Google Directory Search: gd =
http://www.google.com/search?cat=gwd%%2FTop&q=%s
For Google News Search: gn = http://news.google.com/news?q=%s

Note the doubled percent sign ("%%") in the URL specified in the
QuickSearch definition; it is needed to escape the "%" used for the
"%2F" hexadecimal value for the "/" character needed in the resultant
URL (the original URL was
http://www.google.com/search?cat=gwd%2FTop&q=%s). That's a lot of work
and a bit of research to find the shortest URLs that you can use just to
replace the Google Toolbar. Also, you know have to remember all the
prefixes (g, gg, gd, gi, gn) to know where you will be searching, or
just use g for the search and then click on the other tabs in the
results page (which will then double the amount of time to do the search
since it gets performed again). And to understand what the Quicksearch
does, you'll have to visit http://snurl.com/ie_tools to get a glimpse on
how to use it from the terse description.

While you can select Google for the search engine used for the
AutoSearch feature in the Address bar, it doesn't appear as a choice for
a search engine in the Search pane. Google will let you select it as
the default search engine for the entire Search pane but not as a
selection of an additional search engine to include with other search
engines.

Other features that I like about the Google Toolbar:

- Search through the current site (instead of a Google search).
- Search for a dictionary definition of the search string.
- The Highlighter button to instantly highlight the search string in the
results page or in a page you navigate to from a Google search result
link. Lets you know where in the document the search string appears
without having to use Ctrl+F to do a find on the string.
- Word Find buttons (one for each word in the search string) that let
you walk through the results page or through a page you linked to from
the results page. You don't have to hit Ctrl+F nor is the Find dialog
window in your way.
- Having a separate history for searches (in the Google Toolbar) rather
than messing up the URL history list in your Address bar. In fact, I
had autosearch disabled in the advanced options because I didn't want
the search strings polluting my URL history in the Address bar drop-down
list, so Quicksearch wouldn't work anyway.
- Block popups, handy if you don't already have a popup blocker (I use
PopUp Cop). I suspect it is rather simplistic, however.
- Page Ranking (if you don't mind divulging "anonymous" statistics on
where you navigate, and that you don't have a problem getting the
intended target site through their server).

So there is enough handy extra features in the Google Toolbar that make
it desirable over using the more simplistic Address bar, having to
install the IE5 Web Accessories, and then having to manually configure
all those search prefixes and remember them. My big concern was that
they were recording my navigation to web sites even when all the
privacy-divulging options were disabled. An uninstall and reinstall
(using their downloadable installer rather than doing an on-demand
install) fixed that. The problem with not getting to some web sites
after installing the Google Toolbar went away after doing a re-install
of all components of IE6. There is also some suspicion that a Windows
Update occurred and got installed but required a reboot to complete and
might've contributed to the problem of some sites being unreachable. I
seemed to have slammed enough updates and reinstalls on my computer to
whack IE back into working now.

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"Data64" <me@privacy.net> wrote in message
news:Xns93F2E606A1DBFData64Bigfootcom@130.133.1.4. ..
> "Vanguard" <rztqf6v02-nix@sneakemail-nix.com> wrote in
news:vXQ7b.415338
> $uu5.74857@sccrnsc04:
>
> I am not trying to be a troll, just curious. Why exactly do you use
> google bar ?
>
> To search google I go to the address box and type
> "g spyware" to search for spyware. If I wanted to search in google
groups
> then I would type "gg spyware" and so on.
> This works in IE too (although I use it in Mozilla) using the
QuickSearch
> web accessory from Microsoft.
> http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/...cess/ie5wa.asp
>
>
>
>
> data64