Yahoo! Toolbar for Firefox Debuts First Browser Toolbar for Firefox Released in Beta Susan Kuchinskas
Yahoo! has released a beta version of the Yahoo! Toolbar for the open-source Mozilla Firefox browser.
It provides bookmarks and custom buttons, a means to search only within a particular site, stored search history, Yahoo! Mail alerts, and one-click page translation based on Babelfish.
The toolbar also includes quick links to Yahoo properties and a button to quickly add RSS/Atom feeds to the My Yahoo! RSS reader.
The free tool adds functions similar to those available in the Internet Explorer browser Yahoo! Toolbar, although the current beta release does lack the IE version's popular Anti-Spy feature.
"The Yahoo! Toolbar provides Internet users with a faster, safer, and personalized Web experience," said Eckart Walther, director product development, Yahoo! Search. "Yahoo! is now making this functionality available to Firefox users, enabling them to improve their Internet browsing experience using Yahoo!'s industry-leading toolbar."
The release of a Firefox version highlights the growing penetration of the open source browser. Web traffic analytics company WebSideStory reports that Firefox use in the U.S. grew 34 percent in November 2004. And the Mozilla Foundation, which administers the project, reports that Firefox has been downloaded more than 23 million times since its launch in November.
The Yahoo Toolbar Beta for Mozilla Firefox is currently available for Windows. Versions for MacOS X and Linux are expected soon.
