We read quite a lot about websites and applications development, but today let us talk about one of the least discussed topics. Browser toolbars! Well, toolbars have been there around since the nineties, but with its gradual demise, people rarely pay attention to them. However, the web developers and the marketing professionals still make the use of browser toolbars, because of which we should not ignore the toolbars. The field of custom browser toolbar development is blooming and there are a lot of companies that provide custom toolbar solutions. There are a few popular browser toolbars that everyone knows and you should be aware of them too. So, let us take a look at some of the most popular browser toolbars and their features.

1. The Google Toolbar: This toolbar has got an amazing search bar that provides you with suggestions and history. Also, it has got links to news and other search options. You can also save pages to Google favorites. Other features are page rank indicator and pop up blocker. Moreover, it has got spell check as well as auto fill features for forms. Some of the best features include send-to and search highlighting of referral keywords. Some of the optional features include voting on pages, translating options and other custom buttons.

2. The Yahoo! Toolbar: The Yahoo! Toolbar has also got the search bar with suggestions as well as vertical search options. It has got connection to Yahoo! Mail as well as My Yahoo! and direct links to Yahoo! Games as well as Yahoo! Answers. Other special features of this toolbar include Yahoo! bookmarking and anti spy optional plugin.

3. The Microsoft Live Search Toolbar: Like Google and Yahoo! toolbars, the Microsoft Live Search Toolbar has also got the same search bar functionality with suggestions along with the vertical search options as well as direct news links. It has also got link to gallery for more buttons and direct links to MSN portal content and to Live messenger. Other links include maps links for addresses on page and Hotmail/Microsoft/Outlook Email link. Other features include search term highlighting and snapshot highlighting.

4. MozBar:  The MozBar toolbar helps you to streamline your SEO. It gives you an easy access to the powerful SEO tools, SEO metrics and data as you surf. It makes the SEO process easier. You can also make custom searches by country, city or region. Moreover, you can see how tough it is to rank a keyword. The toolbar also exposes page elements with Analyze Page overlay. Apart from that it helps you view social metrics for Twitter, Facebook as well as Google+.

5. Microsoft developer toolbar: The Microsoft Developer Toolbar helps you to view and modify the HTM elements on the go as well as enable or disable the images and code. Also, it allows you to inspect the CSS properties. The last but certainly not the least, it helps you validate and cache code and pages.

Now that you are aware of some of the most popular browser toolbars, it is advisable for you keep them into mind and make the most out of them. Good luck with that!