Internet Explorer Toolbar

Has anyone created their own?

[wruk999]

Hi all,

I now see that eBay have joined the "big guns" on the net and created their own toolbar for their users. It has many features, which they have obviously spent a lot of time (+ money) on, but the result is superb.

My question is: Has anyone or does anyone know how to create a internet explorer toolbar which users to my site could download (just like the google one) which will have quick links (mainly) and a drop-down list of category pages available?

My main requirement...free (or only my own hours) as this is non-commercial, but gets A LOT of traffic, and quite a few people have asked about havng this kind of facility.

So if anyone knows of an extremely good tutorial (I did hours of searching) or quick/cheap ways of doing this, thn please share ;)

Is there an application that can build these things?

Looking for your help,
wruk999

[Harley_m]

take a look at this...

http://pbar.net

I am in no way connected to this - It is simply a page in my huge favorites collection that is ever useful :)

Hope t is of some help,

Harley

[shrirch]

Hi there ... did you get anywhere with pbar.net?

Has anyone put the toolbar through a firewall to see what (if any) info goes out on the wire?

[asmith_2048]

We didn't install/analyse the PBar offering but we did look at it. shrirch makes a good point: without packet-sniffing the box you've installed the PBar on, you've got NO IDEA what it's sending/receiving (one of the cool - or dangerous, depending upon your perspective - features of Microsoft's WinInet API is code can invisibly execute all sorts of Internet calls without you ever knowing). Even then you'll have to be very clever to figure out what it's doing to your local system.

The problem is this: custom toolbars in IE, except those rendered manually in script using custom images (and therefore not strictly IE toolbars), are ActiveX controls (rhymes with "potential security hole").

If you've got your security settings on "mildly paranoid" you'll note that this download is asking for full access to your system.

Additionally, the anti-spyware feature of this toolbar must access your temporary internet files folders (at the very least) on a regular basis, and has system access to everything else.

I am NOT trying to unfairly malign the PBar people. They could be perfectly reputable, and just trying to help. I just urge (extreme) caution. We have seen some excellent stuff from the Israeli IT community, but we have also locked horns with more than one Israel-based hacker group, and they tend to be very professional. The point is, be careful about installing a free ActiveX component that claims to protect your system from spyware (see that really large wooden horse over there filled with angry Greeks?).

You can buld your own ActiveX control (they're not rocket science), but I'm sorry, at the very least you'll have to learn VB6 programming. VC++6 and Delphi 4+ can do these too (but there's more of a learning curve). If you've got .NET you can create custom web controls.

VB, Delphi and .NET all have quite easy-to-use drag & drop form designers with explicit toolbar support, and all will handle much of the "geek-plumbing" for you if you tell them you're making an ActiveX control. We would be pleased to answer any specific project questions you might have, but no specific ActiveX resource comes to mind.

[RobbieD]

We run our own IE Toolbar. Sticky Me for more info.

[NeedScripts]

My own experience..

PLEASE DO NOT INSTALL PBAR.

I don't use the *F* word.. but I am thinking of using it for pbar and what it did to my computer..

Check out [webmasterworld.com...] before installing PBar

If you really wanna install something besides Google Bar.. you can give VPOP (http://www.vpop.net/toolbar/) a try.. their toolbar is pretty good and also lets to customize your search engines and other stuff..

There are some real good people out there who sells IE Toolbar, getting your own toolbar made will also be a good option (I am thinking of getting one and distributing on our site)

Hope this helps.

NS

** edit - added **

When I removed Pbar from my computer.. it screwed up the default search end was sending almost everything address bar search to netselected.com and now below is something from netselected.com's temrs of service ( [netselected.com...] ) that you might wanna see :

You understand and grant Netselected.Com permission to assign each copy of the software an unique software identify code. You also grant Netselected.Com permission to collect and store information of your internet usage habit, including but not limited to information about every web page you view with the full Uniform Resource Locators, and the content of web page. You understand and accept that Uniform Resource Locators and the content of web pages you view may include your personally identifiable information. You grant Netselected.Com permission to collect and store information on which toolbar buttons you click on, your response to advertising, the search terms you entered on the toolbar and/or all other information relates to your internet usage habit. Netselected.Com may at times ask you for your personally identifiable information, such as name, address, email address, zip code, telephone number. You hereby grant Netselected.Com permission to distribute your non personally identifiable information to our partners, agents, and/or any third party in Netselected.Com’s sole discretion. Netselected.Com does not currently enable users to access, review, edit, or delete information, including internet usage information, collected during use of the Service. By using the Netselected.Com Software and/or Service you agree to waive any constitutional, common law, statutory, or regulatory right of access to such information that you might otherwise have or acquire.

Still thinking of using pbar or Netselected.Com