Some of you have already been hit with this... There is a new update of the Google Toolbar and it is a doozy. I used the settings dialog to tell it NOT to change much of anything. Well, Google doesn't seem to want to take "No" for an answer. With Spybot, I kept trying to tell it NOT to make changes in my registry - no dice, it repeats the popups until you let it make the changes. When I made some changes to the toolbar config, I got outgoing connection warnings from Outpost Firewall. What made it interesting was that Google wasn't accessing the internet directly - it was going through svchost.exe as a hidden process. Look, if I remove the "search news" button from the toolbar there's no reason for Google to phone home. To view your search history takes a dropdown box and a click instead of just one click. A background process, called GoogleToolbarNotifier.exe, gets installed. Each time I kill it, it re-installs itself. I'm running Windows 2000 and it insists on re-installing this as a system service. Even if I disable it as a startup item, it insists on re-installing itself. C'mon, I can see something as critical to system safety as an anti-virus or firewall doing this, but a search engine toolbar??? The MSN toolbar, that lets IE have tabbed browsing, is looking better every day.
Yeah, I just got hit with the new toolbar this morning.. It's taking some getting used to. I really hate the new way they have the search history setup.
i saw this new toolbar. didn't download it. and now after reading this, i don't think i need that untill google itself pushed it to my browser.
Perhaps it needs to store it's settings there? That's what the windows registry is for. Some programs HAVE to write to the registry. They could be designed not to, but that is not how windows is designed to work. svchost.exe is a part of windows itself. If you're sure it was the google toolbar, it probably needed to access something. Try ethereal, see what it is sending back and forth and set your mind at ease. Please read this, from another site : GoogleToolbarNotifier is a companion to the Google Toolbar. This executable is necessary to enable the Search Settings Notifier feature of the Toolbar. This feature lets you keep Google as your default search engine and prevents this setting (and others as we add new features) from being changed without your consent. To enable or disable this feature, please click the "Settings" button on your Toolbar and choose "Options." In the "More" section, check or un-check the box next to "Search with Google." As long as this feature remains enabled, GoogleToolbarNotifier.exe will run silently in the background. None of these features seem horrendous, or out of the ordinary in really any way. Just because something creates a network connection, or writes to the registry, or keeps processes in memory does not make it inherently bad. Although these are tricks of spy- and ad-ware companies, this does not mean that Google is installing spy-ware or ad-ware. Most likely it is just so certain features will work, turn them off and everything will be ok. DON'T PANIC!
Ya the google toolbar seems to slow down firefox now more than it use to Hopefully they can optimize it better in the future.
No, the exact registry setting it is changing is the registry setting for the default search engine. That is the registry setting it is changing. And it won't let me change it back. No, did you look at my link? GoogleToolbarNotifier is starting itself as a hidden process, using svchost.exe. Did you read where this exact feature you are quoting is buggy? Did you read how when you uncheck these options, the toolbar ignores that and forces Google to be the default search engine anyway? Did you read how Google admits that GoogleToolbarNotifer.exe is not behaving as you have quoted and that the section you quoted, from Google, is completely wrong? What do you call it when software won't turn off the way the specifications say it should? And when it accesses the internet by hiding itself under a system process? When does it become inherently bad? Re-read this: http://quarterbacks.org/GoogleToolbarNotifier/GoogleToolbarNotifier.asp
The toolbar now makes sure no one is able to choose other search engines by default? Oh my, Google becomes more and more evil each day..
Just to let you know, svchost.exe is Win XP service so you can log on/access the internet/networking protocol.
Have you tried creating custom buttons for users to download and add to their Google toolbar? It works really well.
I really like the new features of the new toolbar but I find the gmail indicator a little inaccurate and since installing it, my XP system has slowed down to a snail's pace. Maybe this is simply coincidence but I have not installed anything else before noticing the speed decrease and it is a considerable speed loss. I also have noticed the size of the iexplore process in the task manager has almost doubled. Anyone else confirm such findings?