Google Toolbar was an old plugin for Internet Explorer that brought “Google features” to the browser. The project had been running for the past 21 years, and the company decided to shut it down last week, according to Ars Technica.
Microsoft announced Internet Explorer’s End of Life a few months ago, and everyone could see it coming. Subsequently, Google decided to put the Google Toolbar plugin to rest as it served its purpose well.
The tech giant released the Google Toolbar on December 11, 2000. Likewise, this date marked Google’s initial steps into the entire browser ownership scenario. Just before its birthday, the company killed the plugin sometime last week.
The URL “toolbar.google.com” was used to open the download page for the plugin for Internet Explorer users. Moreover, this webpage was live until last week, and then Google replaced it with a support page. The support page mentions, “Google Toolbar is no longer available for installation.”
Google wants users to switch to Chrome as per the support page. The Internet Explorer era is now completely dead as the popular plugin takes off.
Google Toolbar brought many unique features to the table as Internet Explorer 5 only had an address bar. For instance, it added a giant search bar, allowing users to directly run a Google search. It could also highlight search terms on pages, block pop-ups, check for spellings and have Google Translate. Eventually, Google put all these fancy features into a browser and launched Google Chrome in 2008.
