It is nearly impossible to try to avoid downloading a toolbar nowadays. Whether intentional or not, most Internet users have found themselves with one. They can be very troublesome to remove and often carry many more risks than benefits. Some toolbars are much more user friendly than others, such as Google's new toolbars for either a desktop or Internet Explorer. However users should still be wary.
The Internet Explorer toolbar, like any other toolbar, holds potential for privacy concerns. Google makes sure to relay the message to the user during the installation, yet many general users pay no attention to the installation. Most users just click next until it's done without reading the agreement. The risk that this toolbar imposes on users is that it has a feature called PageRank, which keeps track of pages the user has visited since the toolbar was installed. The PageRank is by no means there to assist in browsing the web; in fact it only makes for bigger problems and hassles.
Google and Yahoo toolbars tend to be safe due to the fact that they are large companies and any bad feedback picked up by the press could lead to a mistrust in there services. Other less known companies who provide toolbars may not be so honest. If your browsing information gets into the wrong hands, it can lead to many problems down the road such as an increase in unwanted pop-ups provided by businesses that are related to sites you have visited.
Why would the ones making the toolbar want to have a PageRank? Simple, with all the small online businesses out there, all companies want to be a step ahead of the opposition; many toolbar makers take advantage of this and are willing to sell the users information to companies for small fortunes. Despite the dangers of toolbars, they can also be a nice accessory.
On a standard Google toolbar, you are provided with a variety of buttons including a "Google homepage" button, which when pressed send you straight to the Google search page, a "pop-up blocker", which blocks all pop-ups from a page unless you choose to allow them, it also tells you the total number of pop-ups blocked via the toolbar, a "spell check", which checks the spelling of any highlighted word(s) and a "highlighter" which after entering a word in a search, will highlight all the locations of the searched word. If you have a toolbar and you did not want, or download it, it would be safest to remove it. However, if you found a toolbar, which you chose to download, and is user friendly, it is most likely safe and will further enhance your online web browsing. |
