1. Introduction
2. What is a Toolbar?
3. How Toolbars Work
4. Why Toolbars are Free
5. Google Toolbar

What is a Toolbar?

The origins of browser toolbars

A toolbar is a set of tools that are grouped together into an area on the main window of an application. Typically, the tools are arranged into a horizontal strip called a bar, hence the term toolbar is the shortening of the original term tool bar. Vertical and floating toolbars are also possible, though they're not as common.

The tools on a toolbar provide quick and convenient access to commonly-performed operations. Buttons are the most common kind of tool on a toolbar, though menus and drop-down lists are also often found. The tools on a toolbar may or may not be customizable by the user.

Toolbars are not unique to web browsers: they were originally developed in the early 1970's and many of the applications we use today, such as word processors, have toolbars. Most such toolbars are provided by the company that developed the application, but browser toolbars are often developed and distributed by other parties, for reasons that we'll discuss shortly.