Whatever you want to do...Droid Does
Entered CNET Catalog: 11/09/2004
SKU: SERVYAHOOTOOLBAR
Manufacturer: Yahoo! Inc.
Product summary
The good: Easy setup; many customization options; wide variety of specific types of searches; built-in antispyware utility; pop-up blocker lets you view recently blocked pop-ups; access to Web bookmarks.
The bad: Small search box can't be resized.
The bottom line: Complete with scores of options, a wide variety of specific types of searches, one-touch access to Yahoo bookmarks and services, a killer spyware utility, and a pop-up blocker that goes the extra mile, Yahoo Toolbar deserves a place on your Web browser.
Editors' review
- Editors' Choice: Yes
- Reviewed on: 11/22/2004
Installing Yahoo Toolbar was easy in our tests; it took us less than a minute to download and run the install program (0.4MB for the toolbar only or 3MB for the toolbar and Yahoo's Anti-Spy utility). Once the toolbar is installed, you'll need to either sign in to your Yahoo account or register for one--a minor inconvenience. Once inside, you're then taken to a Web page where you can choose from literally dozens of buttons and services. You can reorder the buttons in any way you want (most toolbars don't give you that flexibility) and view icons and text or icons only--impressive. Our sole complaint is that you can't resize the smallish search box.
Yahoo Toolbar serves up a generous variety of search types, including the Web, current site, images, local services, news, products, maps, Yellow Pages, directory, stock quotes, and movie showtimes, each using specific Yahoo search services rather than tacking "news on" or "maps of" onto a search. All that's missing from the list is the weather, and while an optional weather toolbar button is available, you will have to enter a city or a zip code in the Web page. You also get a garden-variety highlighter that calls out where your search results appear on a given page.
Yahoo Toolbar's most impressive extra feature is Anti-Spy, a spyware killer that scans your hard drive for annoying or nosy apps. The scan took just a few minutes on our 60GB hard drive, and it reports back with a list of dangerous files, suspicious items, and files to keep an eye on. Also making the grade is Yahoo's pop-up blocker, which is the only one we've seen that lets you view recently blocked pop-ups. We appreciated the wide range of toolbar buttons taking you to Yahoo features such as the briefcase, address book, and notepad, although we wish the Yahoo Mail button would tell you when new mail arrives. Finally, the toolbar will keep track of bookmarks (even if you sign on from another PC) and import those you have stored in IE or Netscape. What put Yahoo over Google, however, was its ability to view favorite browser bookmarks from any PC, something we think is really cool.
In our on-the-Web search test, Yahoo landed at the top of the heap for sheer volume of search hits, besting AltaVista, Google, Ask Jeeves, A9, HotBot, and MSN. In terms of relevancy, Yahoo scored in the middle of the pack, behind Google, A9 and HotBot (who tied), and AltaVista. Yahoo scored well with financial results; it returned the best results on our query for the pharmaceutical company Merck.
User opinions
Select a User Opinion to view: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20out of 20 user reviews
New yahoo toolbar 8.0 has bugs.
Pros: Very interactive if it worked properly
Cons: Not very interactive because its not working properly. Can't add or delete any of the app buttons from the toolbar thus making it very hard for me to acess my bookmarks.
out of 20 user reviews
Yahoo shouldn't install stuff without permission.
Pros: None. I can't find a single use for this application that the IE Explorer toolbar doesn't handle.
Cons: Installs without permission.
out of 20 user reviews
Yahoo tool bar is malware just say no
Pros: None what so ever
Cons: This is malware. Any program that installs itself without the users permission, and that is exactly what yahoo toolbar does. It makes me wonder what else yahoo is trying to help their self to.
I uninstalled the toolbar successfully with little effort on each pc and it has not reinstalled itself yet.
out of 20 user reviews
Intrusive, disgusting crap of software (pukes!)
Pros: NOTHING. I say again, NOTHING.
Cons: Disgustingly installs without your permission, disables address bar, re-arranges your buttons, and then LOCKS the entire toolbars to force users doing it "Yahoo way" (which sucks).
In the next instance, Yahoo Toolbar disables the address bar of my Windows Explorer. Yup, Windows Explorer, of all things. My current work requires me to copy-paste folder locations, which I cannot do without my address bar. Fortunately I already knew how to unlock the toolbars and put my address bar back.
While relatively savvy users can restore their address bar with some effort, this disgusting product EXPLOITS average user's ignorance to force them doing things Yahoo way (like using Yahoo Search instead of typing the URL directly). Yahoo Toolbar is disgusting, intrusive, and installs without user's permission. There should be law to keep this kind of product from existing, but what can you expect when most laws out there are "pro-business" and horrendously anti-privacy?
out of 20 user reviews
was supposed to make life easier, not sure how
Pros: You get to listen to music for free, and they have a large selection.
Cons: If I changed my main browser or my homepage it kept on asking me if I wanted to change it to Yahoo. It did not matter if I click "do not notify me of this"
out of 20 user reviews
avoid at all costs
Pros: was installed with out even asking
Cons: was installed with out even asking, does not offer anything useful
out of 20 user reviews
Slowed my IE down
Pros: I did not get a chance to review because of my IE Slowness
Cons: Increased my IE Startup time, Some bugs need to be fixed
out of 20 user reviews
Just say NO to Yahoo toolbar
Pros: Absolutely not one thing because it is dishonest.
Cons: Arrogant driveby download
out of 20 user reviews
Yahoo Toolbar sucks
Pros: None at all
Cons: Installs without user permission. Difficult to remove.
It got installed to my PC with some program. Only way to get rid of it was to log in as Administrator and then remove it manually, even the user account has also admin rights.
Yahoo helpdesk was not able to help either.
out of 20 user reviews
Google toolbar is just better
Pros: it does work
Cons: It is not Google
out of 20 user reviews
not overly thrilled
Pros: like the my web, weather, and maps included
Cons: has a tendency to come through in the wrong language
out of 20 user reviews
All Most The Perfect Tool
Pros: Simply The Best Tool Bar
Cons: No Cons So Far
Yahoo's tool bar, is just right! It has the everything I need for fun things to do, as well as for making the web a fun and interesting place to be.
out of 20 user reviews
A heavyweight toolbar with bugs. good for Y! user with lots of memory (Above 512MB)
Pros: Toolbar makes IExplore.exe to stay in Task Manager sometime eating memory. Antispy doesn't catch half the spyware that Microsoft antispyware OR adware does.
Cons: Yahoo user can get easy access to its website.
out of 20 user reviews
This product helped ruin my old computer.
Pros: No pros that I can see...
Cons: Annoying and most likely a port for spyware
Hotkeys do help but i program them on my keyboard not on my internet explorer bar!
No help or use for me.
Installed it to uninstall spyware.
Made my computer run slower so i installed adaware 1.06 personal at www.download.com a free spyware program that works! it removed all of the spyware that the toolbar didn't!
out of 20 user reviews
Awesome Multi-Task Toolbar
Pros: Spyware-detector, pop-up blocker, search tool, Yahoo buttons
Cons: As with all toolbars, it takes up a little block of space from your web viewing
out of 20 user reviews
If you use yahoo this is your TOOLBAR
Pros: works good easy to use. Has alot of nice options.
Cons: Sometimes it crashes. Has not happened to me yet but i think they fixed that problem.
out of 20 user reviews
Nice - especially for Yahoo users
Pros: Buttons self explanable
Cons: Instructions are hard to find
out of 20 user reviews
very good. i recomend
Pros: thankssdfasdf
Cons: ...jhjhjhjhjhjhjh
thanks to yahoo.
out of 20 user reviews
Great Anti-Spyware & Pop-up Blocker!!!!
Pros: Security Features
Cons: None -- Nada - Zilch
out of 20 user reviews
Excellent pop up blocker
Pros: Popup blocker excellent
Cons: it takes a bit of space
