Toolbar revolution? What so?

[kgun]

Dynamic Toolbar - The Next-Generation Toolbar Experience (http://www.dynamictoolbar.com/) has been online for a while and they claim to be

"Dynamic Toolbar is the world’s leader in toolbar development and is committed to creating an engaging user experience by delivering the most innovative toolbar technology".

Now they claim that:

Dynamic Toolbar Revolutionizes the Toolbar Experience (http://dynamictoolbar.com/benefits/)

Dynamic Toolbar, powered with the new DTX technology, is a unique platform for building, deploying, and managing next-generation toolbars. It is revolutionizing the toolbar’s user experience with two core concepts:


A toolbar user interface enabled with the capability of rich Internet applications
A highly flexible widget platform to add limitless toolbar functionality

The Norwegian company bMenu (http://bmenu.com/) offer similar solutions (http://bmenu.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=161&Itemid=55&lang=en).

We may divide the web in two parts:


The web's surface that can be reached by a web browser.
The deep web found in databases that is only visible after a search query has been submitted to the database.

Search Engines and Browsers have problems finding the deep web. Those toolbars will have similar problems.

Related thread: http://www.webproworld.com/webmaster-resources-discussion-forum/94229-webmasters-forget-browsers-ses-make-your-own-ethical-webbots.html#post478195

[techmaniac]

I find those toolbars to be a waste of valuable viewing space. It's especially frustrating to have a client/user viewing a webpage and missing a third of it because they have the Google bar, Symantec bar, AVG bar that has cut the browser to less than half the monitor size.

[langsor]

I have to agree with techmaniac, the only toolbar I use is the 'bookmarks' toolbar that comes with my browser, and of course the 'location' bar...I am actually quite avid about not having that sort of thing on my system. JMO

[deepsand]

The extent to which viewing space is lost is browser dependent.

For example, IE6 makes it very easy to relocate tool bars so that several share a single space; or, hide/show individual tool bars as and when needed.

FF, on the other hand, provides no such native capability.

[seopo]

Some do take up too much space but I like my Google search, and my delicious bookmarklet. Jury is still out on my Hootsuite (for twitter) though.

But getting back to the original point, was there a question? Or more of a informative post?

[kgun]

But getting back to the original point, was there a question? Or more of a informative post?
Both a question and information and to me it seems that no one fully understood the topic. It is not about standard browser toolbars like the Google tb etc. And the first comment is close to irrelevant IMO, since screen sizees has increased dramatically at least here. Now (multiple) 21 inches screens seem to be the standard here on stationary computers. It seems that it is only me that still have an old 17 inches screen combined with a 19 inches flat screen on my Xp computer. Even lap top screens are becoming bigger and more user friendly.

If you look deeper at my original post, you will note that the subject goes beyond standard toolbars and plugins.

[NJ]

I find those toolbars to be a waste of valuable viewing space. It's especially frustrating to have a client/user viewing a webpage and missing a third of it because they have the Google bar, Symantec bar, AVG bar that has cut the browser to less than half the monitor size.

Or they are so very dependent on their Google page they can't get to anything on their own computer without it.

[kgun]

Or they are so very dependent on their Google page they can't get to anything on their own computer without it.
Like the surfer that gets surprised if (s)he can not find an article on the SERPs.

[seopo]

Have to admit that site/company looks quite interesting.

[kgun]

I was on a semiar Searh Summit 2008 where the Norwegian company demonstrated their service. It was impressing, but those tools only scan the surface of the web like most search engines do.