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When I opened IE I noticed this new button with a big "RS" on it and was courious what it was. Well, with a click on it, I was directed to the Rolling Stone website. When did Google slip in this "advertising"? Now I get to manually uncheck the options I never asked for.
In the Toolbar Options, they are called "Custom Buttons". With the Toolbar API you can even create your own. [toolbar.google.com...]
Did I miss this some time ago or is it new? Would it be worth trying to use the API and make a button for it? Are enough "non webmaster" users using it that it could be useful?
They do have some interresting features though, in its most basic form its just a favorite, but you can also add custom search so it will use the searchengine on your site with the provided keywords, or add the output of a feed as dropdown.
It can also be made to be language independant if your site uses the locale-id to physically separate multi-lingual content
The best way to see these buttons is as souped up Favorites. Because that is what they really are, a combination of a Favorite with FavIcon, a direct shortcut to your site's search engine and a dropdown with your site's feed output. You can even include an update link for the toolbar to check if there is a new version of the button.
All in all, instead of provinding a way for visitors to easily add your site as a bookmark, you offer them a link to your own custom button. It's only two clicks, first click for the install link and you get a informational dialog about the nature of the button and it asking for confirmation to install or cancel it a.k.a the second click.
And they are so easy to make, You can start already by just right-clicking a searchbox and selecting 'Generate Custom Search'
[edited by: Unlisted at 10:16 am (utc) on Oct. 2, 2006]
