Do you have a Windows PC? If so, would you help try out a new feature we're planning to try in the toolbar? It's a feature that lets you "vote" on search results or on web pages as you surf.

If you already have the toolbar installed, uninstall it. You'll need to click on the Google logo on the toolbar, then click Uninstall..., and click okay to uninstall the toolbar. Close all copies of IE. Make sure you close every copy of IE--this is the only snag we've seen.

Now open IE and go to http://toolbar.google.com/go?version=beta&hl=en and let the new toolbar install. The new buttons are hidden by default, so click on the Google Logo, then Toolbar Options... Look for "Page Information" and click the checkbox beside "Voting Buttons."

If all goes well, you should have two new buttons on the toolbar: a happy face and a frowny face. From now on, you can click those buttons at any time to send a vote to Google about the page that you're on. For example, if you run across an interesting page on the web, click a happy vote. If you do a Google search and the results are really useless, then click the frowny face on the results page. Or suppose that you mistyped www.yahoo.com as www.yhaoo.com and you got taken to a spam page for 5thavenue.com--that's another chance to send a frowny vote or two. Got a spam email? Click on link they advertise, then send some frowny votes. Ha ha, that'll show 'em! :) Ideally, these buttons will be so easy that you'll vote on great or terrible pages a few times a day.

Q: What is Google going to do with this data?
A: Right now it's just an experiment. Worst case, it's an easy way for people to report spam that we can handle automatically. We might see if we can improve our search with this data.

Q: Is the toolbar a privacy concern?
A: If you turn off advanced features, the toolbar is completely inert. It doesn't collect or send any data at all.

Q: Can I see what it looks like before I do this?
A: Sure. It looks like this. See the happy and frowny faces?





Return to Matt's home page This site about entomology and insects tickled my fancy.
I also like Daddy long legs spiders.
And of course beetles are cute as well.
Maybe not as cute as these roly poly little fellows though.
These guys have two hundred left feet.
Therefore these suckers must have two deci-lef t feet, maybe?
If you see one of these ugly ticks, I'd steer clear of them. I didn't realize that scorpions belonged to the Arc hnida class with some of these other critters.
There's only one scorpion, but lots of spiders that live in Kentucky.