Readers may recall that I announced in early April that I have been working to make WUWT more accessible as well as more community oriented. Improvements so far have included enhanced commenting speed with less moderation and improvements to the Submit a Story system.
I’m pleased to announce the WUWT toolbar. Now, I know some people aren’t fans of toolbars, and others love them. I was on the fence until I saw that it could actually provide some useful tools. One of the biggest is an improved search engine for the now 8000 WUWT posts online. The WordPress search engine is rather limited, some might call it “lame”, and it makes it difficult to find stories you remember and want to reference. Since WordPress still has no plans to upgrade it, I decided this would serve the community better.
Other improvements include:
Instant access to our many reference pages, and the ability to submit stories and news tips right from the toolbar. It eliminates having to wade through the WUWT header menu since you don’t even need to be on the WUWT website to use these features.
You can disable/enable it with a right click as well as configure some elements using the gear icon.
I have decided to keep “Tips and Notes” on as many have requested it and don’t want to go to the trouble of submitting a full story. Either way, this makes it easier since you can submit from the toolbar now – handy if you are on a web page you want to bring to attention.
Quick links are also available to the WUWT Facebook Page and Twitter feed.
The other value to this toolbar is that it helps Alexa get accurate data on WUWT traffic and reach, so you’d be helping WUWT by installing it and using it.
It works with Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Chrome (on Windows). I regret that Alexa doesn’t offer other browsers such as Safari and Opera, but perhaps they will in the future.
There’s no risk using this toolbar, uninstall it at any time if you don’t like it, and you can’t beat the price.
The toolbar is editable, and I’ll take suggestions into consideration.
Thanks for your continued support of WUWT.
If you want to check out and then install the toolbar, CLICK HERE
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Similar Android widget ?
Nice job on the upgrades!
Anthony,
Way cool. Very useful…thanks.
Anthony, I am using IE10. I clicked on your check it out link only to be faced with:
“FREE. Installs in seconds.
Your browser is not supported
Toolbars are compatible with Chrome (Windows only), Firefox and IE6 through IE9.”
I’m not a big fan of extra Toolbars.
I recently looked at a Macbook that’d been in use for a long time. When I opened up a web browser window, about 80% of the screen was covered by decorations and toolbars. There was just a tiny “letterbox slit” of web content visible. After about half an hour of cursing and clicking, I’d reduced the “overload” to a mere 4 toolbars; enough to permit a useful view of the web pages of interest at a readable text size.
If you offer a toolbar, people will try to install it; especially if it’s “free”. There’s little consideration as to the reduction in web usability by having the toolbar permanently occupy screen real estate. Make people aware how they can remove the toolbar if they find that the toolbar’s presence is an uncomfortable compromise between WUWT-ability and general web use.
I am a highly a-typical user of the Interwebs. Or so I’ve been led to believe. Personally, I don’t see anything on the WUWT toolbar that isn’t provided on the WUWT web page. Some people may like the toolbar simply because it freezes certain “buttons” in the sample place on their screen.
And still no WUWT on Google+…
btw Toolbars are so 5 years ago…
I dislike toolbars eating my display space but …
In FF (XP) I come to the Accept and Install screen, and the button is dead. No response (or FF request to approve, etc.) Even the Cancel option is unresponsive.
I have cleared all script and redirect blockers, etc. Still nothing. I have installed many addons before. This one is uniquely difficult.
Easy to switch on and off in Firefox. Just click the View menu, mouse over Toolbars, then check or uncheck the “WUWT” box to suit. Literally two clicks is all that’s needed.
What I like is the list of latest posts; makes it easy to check when something new has appeared without having to go to WUWT to check. Also, have switched off Web Information Features in options.
Gets my vote! 🙂
I am assuming you have already run the program from your disk directly and that the inactive accept/install button is after running the program from disk… If not, run from disk!
Close FireFox, all FF objects; re-open FF and go to your add-ins/extensions management page. (My apologies, I’d give exact directions but I uninstalled FF as irritating to my personal preferences not FF ability).
Under the add-ins management look for the WUWT toolbar add-in; activate it. That should do it. If not, post again.
Thanks Anthony for all the hard work and these new features. I like the toolbar for the easy access. I can peruse your headlines and choose the ones that interest me without opening the home webpage to go looking. And I am glad you kept the Tips and Notes. When I come across something, this toolbar will provide quick access to that page. Many blessings to you and your family.
From atheok on May 21, 2013 at 8:37 am:
Run from disk?
*fires up XP partition on old laptop, dials up, calls up Firefox, goes to WUWT, clicks, goes to Alexa toolbar page, Install, popup “accept terms” window, Accept, Firefox asked to Allow, which I did, it downloaded, confirm Software Installation (Install Now), Restart Now…*
*now have WUWT toolbar*
Run from disk?
Attention, Brian H. Try it when logged on as Root (System Supervisor, whatever). You’ll need those permissions for software installation.
atheok says:
> Safari is Firefox under the covers
Not quite. Under the covers, Safari is Konqueror, or at least was around 2003. It has nothing in common with Firefox besides superficial functional similarity.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/74/Timeline_of_web_browsers.svg
It looks like this toolbar is written as a Firefox extension (or Chrome’s), so there is no way to make it work in Safari. It needs to be specifically written as a Safari extension.
Apropos security, it is OK to install an run any extension in any browser, as long as you can control what it is allowed to do using, for example, Ghostery (http://www.ghostery.com). It is good to have it whether or not you use any extensions, because web programs can also do things you may not like.
A useful toolbar, but I would like some control over the size and font color, since I found it too distracting and had to remove it. I run Chrome with Large font and 125% zoom, which may have made it a bit large, combined with the color it was a tad overbearing. 🙂 I love the information on your site, though!
I have WUWT bookmarked in Safari, but since I’m now using Firefox for my own WordPress blog, it’s open anyway, so I added the toolbar. Came in useful right away, as I needed to seek out some CO2 info for a discussion on another forum that I frequent (MacResource). It’s neat, actually; much better search function.
BTW, thanks for keeping Tips and Notes active.
/Mr Lynn