The Google Toolbar is a product of the good folks at google.com.

Contrast with GoogleBar.

The Google Toolbar is a utility that plugs into Microsoft Internet Explorer and is only available on Microsoft Windows platforms (9x or NT flavors).  

It adds a toolbar to IE that includes a search box and an optional Pagerank feature.

For more detail see
http://toolbar.google.com/

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''Allegedly the GoogleToolbar also has SpyWare functions - can anyone comment?''

The GoogleToolbar has NO Spyware functions. Use of the OPTIONAL 'advanced features' known as "PageRank Display" will result in all your url's being sent to Google servers for extra data, like PageRank info.

Google makes this VERY clear on the Google Toolbar download page.

''I installed GoogleToolbar and allowed it to pass data back to Google in Dec2004. Since then my InternetExplorer becomes funny and did not want to work. It may be due to an interaction of this Google send back and firewall software.''
* How do I switch off the "back to Google" option? Or failing that, uninstalling the toolbar? -- dl


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CategorySoftwareTool