Browser toolbar

A browser toolbar is a toolbar that resides within a browser's window. All major web browsers have a browser toolbar feature enabled by default. They also provide support for 3rd party browser toolbars as a way to extend the browser's GUI and functionality. Browser toolbars are considered to be a particular kind of browser extension which presents a toolbar. Browser toolbars are specific to each browser, which means that a toolbar working on one browser will not work on another one. All browser toolbars must be installed in the corresponding browser before they can be used and require updates when new versions are released. Many high-profile browser toolbars released over the years have been fraught with problems, either from intentional malware, from injected computer viruses or due to poor or conflicting programming when considering multiple toolbars being included on a single browser.

A browser toolbar is a toolbar that resides within a browser's window. All major web browsers have a browser toolbar feature enabled by default. They also provide support for 3rd party browser toolbars as a way to extend the browser's GUI and functionality. Browser toolbars are considered to be a particular kind of browser extension which presents a toolbar. Browser toolbars are specific to each browser, which means that a toolbar working on one browser will not work on another one. All browser toolbars must be installed in the corresponding browser before they can be used and require updates when new versions are released. Many high-profile browser toolbars released over the years have been fraught with problems, either from intentional malware, from injected computer viruses or due to poor or conflicting programming when considering multiple toolbars being included on a single browser.

Adverse impact

During the 2000s, there was a proliferation of browser add-ons produced and released by a variety of software companies, both large and small, which were designed to extend the browsing experience for the end user. Due to this popularity, and the ease with which users could have these installed, there was additionally an adoption by malware, adware, and other privacy-invasive tracking tools. The popularity of browser toolbars has since declined. Many unscrupulous companies use software bundling to force users downloading one program to also install a browser toolbar, some of which invade the user's privacy by tracking their web history and search history online. Many antivirus companies refer to these programs as grayware or potentially unwanted programs (PUPs).

List

The following is a list of web browser toolbar articles on Wikipedia: Alexa Toolbar AOL Toolbar Bing Bar Data Toolbar Google Toolbar Mirar Toolbar Windows Live Toolbar Yahoo! Toolbar Most of the frameworks listed here are now defunct or inactive as of the mid-2020s, due to the widespread adoption of the standardized WebExtension API across major browsers.

References

Text derived from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1373903493 under CC BY-SA 4.0; modifications have been made.