Google ToolBar for Mac

Anyone think it is time for the software?

[eboda]

I don't know about anyone else, but I hate using Virtual PC just to use my Google ToolBar!

As a full time web developer and learning the game of SEO, I would like to see Google ToolBar come over to the Mac side. (Mac OS X that is.)

Any Mac heads out there agree?

If so - I motion to add a little pressure on Google and let them know what we need, and need it sooner than later.

I made it easy for you... just e-mail them here: [e-mail].

:) Cheers!
eboda

[jimbo_mac]

>>>If only they could make something work in Opera

Looks more likely to come out on Mozilla, if it ever will come out.

Opera are thinking about stopping developement of Opera for the mac.
[news.com.com...]

[jamesa]

Throw my vote in for a Google toolbar on the Mac (with PR of course).

Right now I'm using Virtual PC to get it. :(

[seindal]

For Mozilla/Netscape users there is the GoogleBar: [googlebar.mozdev.org...]
but is doesn't have the PR part. There is a secret checksum involved, for which Google probably won't release the algorithm. At least they haven't.

Maybe Google is afraid of programs that can automate the process of inspecting PR values, without supplying them with any user behaviour information. Now they're getting something back for revealing the PR of visited pages, but if they gave away the algorithm, they'd be losing that information.

René.

[binki]

But...they've already given it away for the PC version. If there's some reason why Apple can't get it, Microsoft, who already has it, could put it on IE for the Mac. All we want is parity.

Ok, that's it, I'm making a sign and marching around...

"What do we want?"
"Page Rank!"
"When do we want it?"
"NOW!"

[nicebloke]

I've been using this [chimoosoft.com] which is not far off. Again, no PR, but I have to use the PC for something.

[awcabot]

I have been getting a similar canned response from Google since they first introduced the toolbar for the Windows OS. Bugs the heck out of me. Too bad GoogleGuy has sticky mail off.

[daamsie]

I've been following this thread:

[webmasterworld.com...]

which looks like it may have a way of figuring out the rank without the toolbar.. problem is you would still have to have a windows computer to get the ch value for the site.

[galaga]

Its ridiculous that there isn't a Mac version of the Toolbar. It's not like Google is some shoestring company and the Mac is an obscuro platform. I have no PC access at all and have to rely on the good nature of people on these boards to find out my PR. Thankfully someone is always happy to help.

[digitalghost]

>>and the Mac is an obscuro platform

But it is... :) No offense meant, but the market share isn't there.

As of Jan. 2, 2002, it was 2.32 percent, compared to Microsoft's 96.28

[daamsie]

Well.. perhaps mac isn't used much among the general populus, but according to this source [apple.com] (possibly biased :)), it is the most widely used platform by web developers - and forgive me for being obnoxious, but I think that is the point of the toolbar with PR. Even if those figures aren't completely accurate, from the visit stats to my website alone, I can tell it is NOT an obscure platform!

[Jaze]

I would tend to think Market Share was based on Sales, not usage. There are a number of University's and Colleges around the world that widely use Mac's but it is not a priority to have the latest and greatest hardware, particularly with limited budgets. Mac's (up until Mac OS X) also haven't the same necessity to upgrade due to new Operating System code bloat and security patches.

Numer of Mac visitors to our site (13%) but then our software is built for both platforms...

[binki]

It's kind of irritating, isn't it?
Seems to me if we're such a small insignificant number of users, there shouldn't be any problem letting us have a Konfabulator widget or something to calculate our PR. Or at least giving us a way to figure out our ch value. Since there are so few of us, what could be the harm?

Honestly, it's like one sentence of code. Apple, or Microsoft, or Google, or some enterprising hacker, could just make a website where we could go and punch in our domain to get the ch value, and we'd be on our own after that.. AND THAT WOULD BE FINE!

We ask so little!

[atadams]

According to the Google Zeitgeist [google.com], Mac is 4% of their traffic. I would love the Toolbar on my Mac, but I don't think it's gonna happen soon. AFAIK, it's much more difficult to develop toolbars for Mac IE and it probably isn't worth hassling over for 4%.

[edited by: atadams at 4:06 am (utc) on Feb. 27, 2003]

[daamsie]

Perhaps one of the REASONS that mac isn't that high in the google traffic is the fact that the toolbar doesn't exist for IE.. after all it is a lot easier to go to google if you have a bookmark in your browser.. I expect that these figures will increase significantly now that Safari incorporates Google search in their toolbar! Let's just hope they include PR soon as well.

[Macguru]

I believe a 4 % market share for the Mac platform is realistic. I wonder what percentage of Windows visitors have the toy installed?

[atadams]

I wonder what percentage of Windows visitors have the toy installed?

That's a good question. I would bet it would be a lot less than this SE-centric crowd would estimate.

[atadams]

Perhaps one of the REASONS that mac isn't that high in the google traffic is the fact that the toolbar doesn't exist for IE.

Good point.

[meannate]

I know that being able to check the PR values of each page is nice… but certainly not necessary. By obsessing over these values, you are really doing yourself a discourtesy.

Also, let’s be honest, Mac users are normally an eccentric cross-section of the population… This isn’t the first time Mac users have been left in the dark, either. Let’s talk about Quark 5… the premier app for the Macintosh, considering that everyone using Macs is involved with graphic design on *some* level. And they can’t get their crap together for OSX and Quark 5.

Something tells me it’s not entirely Google’s fault, or Microsoft’s but rests somewhere squarely on Apple’s shoulders. If they can’t get their API together for Quark 5 and OSX to sing together, then what’s on their agenda? Go figure.

-meannate

[binki]

I think the Quark thing is God's way of telling you to switch to InDesign! It's better software and the company is responsive, what more could you ask?

Back on topic, it's obscene that there's no way for Mac people to see their PR. Our numbers are growing every day and it's just ridiculous that they're not making this simple yet important information available to us.

[awcabot]

It seems that Google will never be able to create a toolbar for IE for Mac. I have not seen any toolbar for IE for Mac and I am starting to think that it is a technical impossibility. Of course, it could show us page ranks in the results page, therefore make it available to all, platform independent...

[binki]

I don't know-- it works just fine on Virtual PC so there is definitely SOME way of tricking it.