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The AltaVista Toolbar is free, customizable and gives you the research tools to perform searches and translations anywhere on the web.
- Web Search: search within all AltaVista indexes, including the best image search on the web.
- Site Search: search the site you are currently on.
- Translation: translate text or web pages into 10 languages.
- Popup Blocker: get rid of annoying popups.
Editorial Review
The AltaVista search engine was “the” search engine in the early days of the internet and still boasts the “best image search on the web” as its claim to fame. Even though newer, more sophisticated search engines exist (namely Google) AltaVista continues to offer its search functions as well as its AltaVista toolbar.
The AltaVista toolbar is a relatively straightforward application that installs easily enough with minimal fuss. Internet Explorer must be set to accept Active-X, which can sometimes create a small bump in the road for fresh installations, but this is a minor detour that is easily remedied.
The AltaVista toolbar features, of course, the AltaVista search window on the far left of the toolbar. The AltaVista logo that accompanies the search window creates a dropdown box of options for the user that includes the ability to add, remove, and customize buttons, set preferences, and access various avenues of the AltaVista search engine.
Access to AltaVista’s various search functions can also be accessed from the “Search the Web” button that sits adjacent to the search window. This also includes country-specific search criteria that is usually set to the user’s home country upon installation.
The Lookup button allows the user access to weather, calculator, time, currency, and measurement conversions.
The most notable feature of the AltaVista toolbar is the Babelfish language translator that allows the user to translate websites into 10 different languages including English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Chinese. If you’ve ever used the Babelfish translator before, you would know that its efficacy is shaky at best but it certainly works in a pinch. If nothing else, the translations almost always prove to be humorous.
The AltaVista toolbar also features a pop-up blocker and highlighter function as well as the ability to hide the toolbar. The Last Search feature seems redundant, at best. I just can’t fathom that I would need this feature enough so that it’s prominence on the toolbar is warranted.
The AltaVista toolbar is a lackluster tool that simply doesn’t offer enough features to warrant its use. If AltaVista wanted to regain a foothold one would think that it would bundle its toolbar with innovative features that would compel users to use it, but sadly this doesn’t appear to be the case. There are too many other much more robust toolbars for Internet Explorer to give the AltaVista toolbar a good review.
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