Google Toolbar offers browse by name

[Renew Deal]

Google courts Web surfers by making it easier to navigate the Web

By Scarlet Pruitt, IDG News Service July 15, 2004

In its constant quest to court Web surfers, Google Inc. added a new feature to its toolbar this week that allows users to navigate the Web by typing in a name instead of a URL (uniform resource locator).

With the new Browse By Name feature, users of the Google's Toolbar can, for example, type "Grand Canyon" into their Internet Explorer browser window and land on the Grand Canyon homepage without having to type the somewhat cumbersome http://www.nps.gov/grca/ URL for the national park.

If users type in name that isn't specific or well recognized, the toolbar automatically performs a Google search on the subject, giving users a choice of destinations to choose from, the company said.

Typing "bicycles" in the browser window, for instance, brought up a litany of bicycle-related search results. Google said that the tool is aimed at helping users save time when browsing the Web.
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http://www.infoworld.com/article/04/07/15/HNgoogletoolbar_1.html

This was a feature in IE for a long time. Microsoft dumped the company that is doing this for them and replaced it with an MSN search I believe.