Microsoft announced the end of Internet explorer a few months ago, and everyone saw it coming. As a result, Google decided to retire the Google Toolbar plugin, which had served its purpose well. According to Ars Technica, the project had been running for the past 21 years when the company decided to shut it down last week. On December 11, 2000, Google released the Google Toolbar. Similarly, this date marked Google’s first foray into the entire browser ownership scenario. The plugin was killed by the company last week, just before its birthday. For Internet Explorer users, the URL “toolbar.google.com” was used to open the plugin download page. Furthermore, this webpage was operational until last week, when Google replaced it with a support page. According to the support page, “Google Toolbar is no longer available for installation.” According to the support page, Google wants users to switch to Chrome. As the popular plugin takes off, the Internet Explorer era has come to an end. Because Internet Explorer 5 only had an address bar, Google Toolbar added a slew of new features. For example, it added a massive search bar, allowing users to perform a direct Google search. It could also highlight search terms on pages, block pop-ups, spell check, and use Google Translate. Google eventually put all of these fancy features into a browser and released Google Chrome in 2008.
