Google Toolbar is an Internet browser toolbar available for Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox (with slightly different features).

Controversial bundling

The toolbar is bundled with some popular freely-downloadable software, most notably Macromedia Shockwave, Macromedia Flash, WinZip, RealPlayer, SunMicro's Java, PCTOOLS Spyware Doctor, DivX and CCleaner with the option to install the software selected by default. Some users see this as unethical, as it is similar to the tactics used by some P2P programs to trick users into 'consenting' to having spyware on their computers. However, many other companies bundle different pieces of software into one installer (e.g. Apple's QuickTime for Windows download also installs iTunes) and the Google Toolbar itself is not 'harmful' in any specific way. If the user decides that he/she does not want the toolbar, it can be uninstalled without affecting the software it was bundled with. It has also been argued that Google is simply keeping up with the competition, as Microsoft bundles its toolbar with many of its programs, as does Yahoo.

Google Compute

Google Compute was a separately downloadable add-on for the Google Toolbar which allowed participation in a distributed computing project to help scientific research. It started on a limited basis in March 2002 and ended in October 2005.

Google Compute enabled a user's computer to help solve challenging scientific problems when the computer would otherwise be idle. When one enabled Google Compute, the computer downloaded a small piece of a large research problem and performed calculations on it that were then included with results from thousands of other computers. Google Compute was only available for the English language version of the Google Toolbar.

The effort's first, and so far only, contribution was to Folding@home, a non-profit endeavor to model the process of protein folding in order to better understand and cure many different diseases. The Google Compute homepage recommends that users wishing to continue contributions to the project download the official Folding@home client.

Similar Toolbars

Wikipedia Toolbar

Yahoo! Toolbar

Windows Live Toolbar