Tuesday, December 06, 2005

How to integrate Google's Toolbar with Firefox



  1. Start Firefox and install Google Toolbar.
  2. Restart Firefox.
  3. Right click somewhere in the blank space to the right of the "Help" menu.
    1. Select "Customize." I will call this window the "Button Pane."
  4. Drag the normal Firefox search box (which normally resides in the upper right corner) into the Button Pane to get rid of it.
  5. Drag the buttons you want to keep from the Google Toolbar into their respective positions on the main toolbar (as seen in photo.)
  6. Press "Done" on the Button Pane.
  7. Right click the empty toolbar space again (like in step 4).
    1. Uncheck "Google Toolbar"

Tada! Now you can have Google Toolbar without the extra clutter. I only kept the spellcheck and highlight buttons because I find the (toggleable) highlighting of search terms convenient, and I sometimes experience curious lapses of spelling ability. The Google search box has auto-suggest, which is like a search in itself. It's nice to be able to explore related searches as you type.