AltaVista Adds Toolbar

AltaVista has jumped onto the toolbar bandwagon with the addition of a new AltaVista toolbar, available from http://www.altavista.com/toolbar/default. As with most search engine toolbars, you'll need to be running IE to use it.

Once you've gotten through agreeing to the terms of service (the privacy policy is all the way down at the of the TOS) the toolbar will automatically install. At first glance it looks like an interesting cross between the Ask Jeeves toolbar (which I really like) and the Google toolbar.

Default buttons installed include an information lookup button (for currency conversions, dictionary, zip and area codes, etc.) a translation tool, and a popup blocker. Additional available buttons (accessible by clicking on the AltaVista icon and choosing "Add/Remove Buttons" from the menu) include individual lookup buttons for many of the reference items and lookup buttons for many AltaVista properties (including news, images, etc.)

I started off by trying the translator. I went to Daypop, found a couple likely sites to translate, and tried them. Interestingly, the translate the entire page didn't work. Translating selected text worked fine. The reference stuff worked much better. Searching for a word took me straight to the Merriam-Webster dictionary definition. Searches for time zones and currency exchanges were equally helpful.

There is an annoying quirk to the toolbar, though. When you search for one of the ready-reference items -- currency conversion, for example -- the query that's being passed to AltaVista shows up in the toolbar's search box. And it impacts your next search. Say I search for currency conversion for the pound. pound exchange rate shows up in the AltaVista search box. Next I want to search for a time zone. "pound exchange rate time" is passed on to AltaVista for a search and, as you might imagine, doesn't give you time zone information.

I liked the speediness of the AltaVista toolbar, and I like the lookups that are offered in the bar. But that search box problem would have to be fixed before I use it a lot. It's just too easy to mess up your search as it is.

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