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When it comes to increasing general web search productivity, nothing beats installing a search toolbar on your favourite browser. All the Search providers have them freely available for both Internet Explorer and Firefox. You can find the Google Toolbar here, Windows Live Toolbar here and the Yahoo Toolbar here.
I used Google Toolbar on Firefox personally, but they all have very similar functionailities, here is what a Google tool bar look like.
Whilst most browser these days already have a built-in search box on top, for me, search toolbar is still a must for me and they make me a better and more efficient searcher. Whilst toolbar these days provide tones of features including translation and spell check, the three main reasons of why they make me a better searcher are:
(1) Instant Access to All Search Services: Whether you want to search for web sites, news, images or even location, you can do it all with a click of a mouse button from the toolbar !
(2) PageRank: Google toolbar displays the PageRank of the page you are visiting and gives you a general guide as to the importance of the page (according to Google). The longer the Green bar, the more attention I pay to a particular page.
(3) Keyword Tracking Functionality: To me, this is the killer functionality provided by the Google toolbar. Once you have arrived at a results page from a keyword search. Google toolbar allows you to (1) Highlight all the keywords used for the search (in different colors!) (2) Click on the keywords used for the search and highlight them individually for you.
When I arrive at a site from a Google search now, no longer will I need to go to Edit->Find from the menu, type in the keyword I want to find on the page and press enter, I can do keywords search using ONE CLICK ! Major time saver and productivity gain.
Search toolbar is the first thing I install these days when I upgrade my browser as I almost feel lost without them. Go on, give it a go if you are not already using them, I promise you will not go back to a browser without one once you use them.
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