Putting the Google toolbar in our Internet Explorer browser meant being able to search Google without having to go to their website. Despite being an element that achieved great popularity, it was discontinued by Google at the end of last year.
Installing Google Toolbar is no longer possible
Google’s toolbar was launched in December 2000, and was possibly responsible for marking the company’s first step towards what is now Chrome, the world leader in the field of web browsers. But 22 years ago, Internet Explorer had a strong, established monopoly, so Google decided develop plugins to use them on it. First with the toolbar and later with the inclusion of a large search field.
It should be remembered that in Internet Explorer 5 it was only possible to enter web addresses in the address bar, so putting the Google bar in the browser was quite useful, allowing users to perform any search on Google from any web page. This bar helped to change the habits of users, making the search as or more popular. In addition, it later added new features such as highlighted search terms on pages, pop-up blocking, spell check, autocomplete, and Google Translate.
However, Google decided Leave quietly and without noise this tool which in 2008 was responsible for more than 12% of all Google searches, to later convince us that, if we wanted to get the best experience, we should simply download Chrome as a browser. Now we are redirected to a support page where we can read “Google Toolbar can no longer be installed. Instead, you can download and install Google Chrome.”
Set Google as home page
Since it is no longer possible to put the Google bar in our web browser, the best option to be able to carry out quick searches is to put Google as the main page so that it appears as soon as we open the browser. This is something that we can do very easily.
Google Chrome
Chrome is the most popular and used web browser today with a market share that exceeds 60%. If we want to quickly access Google every time we open it, it is enough to make it our main page. To do this, it is only necessary to click on the icon with three points in the upper right and click on “Settings”.
Subsequently, we select «Aspect» in the column of the left column and mark the option of “Show home button”. We select the second option and finally write “www.google.com”.
MozillaFirefox
It is presented as the great alternative to Chrome, open source and developed for different platforms, being coordinated by the Mozilla Corporation and the Mozilla Foundation. If we want to quickly access the Google search engine, it is enough to make it our main page.
This is something we can do by clicking on its icon with three bars located in the upper right. This will open a context menu where we click on “Settings”. On the new page that appears, click on “Start” in the left column. Within the “New windows and tabs” section, we select “Custom URLs” and write “www.google.com” in the «Start page and new windows».
Microsoft Edge
The new Microsoft browser has taken over from Internet Explorer, improving everything over its predecessor, which wasn’t very difficult either. Since we can’t put Google toolbar on it, we can choose to put Google as homepage with a few simple steps.
The first thing is to click on the symbol with three points that is located in the upper right. This opens a menu where we choose the “Settings” option. On the new page that appears, click on the “Home page, main page and new tabs” section in the left column. Now on the right side, in the section “When Microsoft Edge starts” we select “Open these pages” and enter “www.google.com”.
Safari
It is the default browser that we can find in macOS, being developed by Apple itself and that also has its version for Windows. Although it doesn’t have the popularity ratings of the previous ones, it is highly appreciated by certain users, especially those who come to Windows from macOS. To be able to search directly on Google, simply set it as the Home page.
This I leave that we must do by clicking on the gear button located in the upper right. This will open a menu where we select the “Preferences” option. Now a popup window will be displayed. We go to the “General” tab and scroll to the bottom. In section “Homepage” we enter “www.google.com”.
Use the Chrome omnislash to search Google
If Chrome is known for something, it’s for having a minimalist approach to its interface, since we won’t find any menu or status bar, and the tabs are located outside the window instead of inside it. When it was decided to do without and completely eliminate the Google bar, it was done based on incorporating something that could be much more practical within your browser. It is what we know asor the address bar or omnibar.
As we have mentioned, one of the most important components of Google’s recent years is the search bar and instead, there is now an omnibar, which is responsible for acting as search bar and url bar. In this way, within the minimalism that the browser boasts, we find an element that combines the search bar and the address bar into one.
This means that we can use the Chrome omnibar to be able to search directly on Google, without having to previously access the search engine website. As we can see when we open a new tab, it appears written in the bar “Search Google or enter a URL”. Therefore, we can write whatever we want to search for and press Enter, so that it will show us on the screen the search results obtained directly from the Google engine.
