Google Bookmarklets and Deskbar
I just noticed that Google has a Google Browser Buttons page that includes a JavaScript bookmarklet to add a Search button to your IE toolbar. You select some text and hit the button, and it plugs your text into a Google search. This is useful for those of us who don’t want to use the full Google Toolbar.
If you click this button without selecting any text, you get a corny JavaScript prompt. I made a modified version that sends you to Google’s search page instead, and also fixes a problem the original had with pages containing frames. Here’s my modified version: Search Google (to use a bookmarklet, drag it to the IE toolbar.)
In related news, the new Google Deskbar is an interface to Google that lives in the Windows taskbar. It’s probably inspired by the indispensable Dave’s Deskbar, but lacks the wide variety of other search options. On the plus side, I like the pop-up search result window that you can expand into a real browser.