SRS likes the Google Toolbar because it gives easy access to certain functions. Are they ones which cannot be accessed by other means, or does it just link directly without messing about?

Many of the toolbars are much more manipulative than the Google one. I'm sure they all report back to the mother ship, but I've set Google to do it anonymously.

Between typos and inconsistent spelling skills the feature of the toolbar I use all of the time is the spelling check. I usually have it set for No Popups. I don't have it fill in forms, I don't want to accidentally send out info that way so I don't use it. I have the news icon there and the image icon in place. Those I use all of the time. I feel like the Yahoo and Earthlink toolbars try to direct me to their featured sites much more than Google, though the Google featured sites are conspicuous at the top of the page and with a blue background. I usually skip those and go down to the regular results unless it is precisely what I'm looking for, in which case I give Google a little of what it wants, a reading on the accuracy of the recommendations. But I don't do that very often.

SRS