Google Toolbar 5 now available in Firefox

A few months ago we launched several new features for Google Toolbar in Internet Explorer. Since then, we've received many emails asking us when we plan to support all our new features in Firefox.

Guess what: Starting today, you can download the latest version of Google Toolbar for Firefox, available in 29 languages. This new version is the first Toolbar launched out of our St. Petersburg, Russia office. It includes all the Toolbar features you know and love, such as Search, Bookmarks and Translate. When you install it, you can try out some of our newest features.

We don't like to play favorites among Toolbar's features, but it's hard not be wowed by Autofill. You can create several profiles with personal or business information including different addresses, email addresses and credit card details. So anytime you want to fill an online form, just click on Autofill and the right information will appear in the form automatically. All your information is safely stored only in your own computer, with your credit card numbers encrypted and protected by a password.

We also love Google Gadgets in Toolbar. Gadgets bring information from your favorite websites closer to you. For example, you can add the YouTube gadget to your Toolbar. When you want to have a quick break from work, click on the YouTube icon and search or view videos in a box that pops down from the Toolbar, without leaving the web page you are on. Close that box when you're done with it (or when your manager starts walking towards your cube). You can find the YouTube gadget and thousands of others in our gallery.


We look forward to get your feedback, or to hear your stories about the exciting ways you are using Toolbar's features. We hope that you enjoy the new Google Toolbar as much as our team enjoyed building it!

If you're interested in learning more about Google Toolbar, visit us at http://tools.google.com/firefox/toolbar/FT5 or check out our video:

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Google Takes StarOffice For Its Pack

Google is adding Sun Microsystems' StarOffice suite to Google Pack, its freely downloadable collection of productivity software. The software is available immediately.

Google Pack is quite a collection that includes Google Earth, Norton Security Scan, Google Desktop, Firefox with Google Toolbar, Adobe Reader, Skype, RealPlayer and other Google products.

StarOffice is Sun's commercial version of OpenOffice, the open source office suite that is available from Sun for $69. The $69 fee gets you product and technical support from Sun along with indemnification from any legal action.

"That's really what you're paying for," Mark Herring, senior director of marketing for Sun, told Internetnews.com. "If you couldn't care less about support, then Google has a distribution for you."

He added StarOffice also has a few extra features OpenOffice does not have, like an extra spell checker, Web search and some conversion filters. Both support Open Document Format (ODF) and can read Microsoft Office documents.

Rob Helm, director of research for Directions on Microsoft, thinks this is more of an effort to get the low-hanging fruit than a real effort to take a chunk out of Microsoft's bread-and-butter Office business.

"Google has been competing with Microsoft at the low end of Office for some time, so this is a further expansion of Google's strategy," he told internetnews.com. He said StarOffice has some shortcomings and is not a worthy replacement for Office in a business/enterprise market, but it's perfect for users with fewer demands.

"I'd say [StarOffice] is not so much a competitor to Office today as Works, the free software a lot of people get with their PCs," said Helm. "Of course, they would love to sneak into the enterprise market, but considering the functionality StarOffice is offering, I don't think most enterprises would look at it seriously."

Mostly, he sees StarOffice as a way for Google to get into the desktop, and perhaps extend its Web-based application offerings, Docs and Spreadsheets, or perhaps create some connection between StarOffice and the online applications.

Source:www.internetnews.com