Yahoo released a beta version of the Yahoo! Toolbar for the open-source Mozilla Firefox browser.
It provides bookmarks and custom buttons, a means to search only within a particular site, stored search history, Yahoo! Mail alerts, and one-click page translation based on Babelfish.
The toolbar also includes quick links to Yahoo properties and a button to quickly add RSS/Atom feeds to the My Yahoo! RSS reader.
The free tool, available on Thursday, adds similar functions to those available for the Internet Explorer browser.
“The Yahoo! Toolbar provides Internet users with a faster, safer and personalized Web experience,” said Eckart Walther, director product development, Yahoo! Search. “Yahoo! is now making this functionality available to Firefox users, enabling them to improve their Internet browsing experience using Yahoo!’s industry-leading toolbar.”
The release of a Firefox version highlights the Firefox use in the U.S. grew 34 percent in November 2004. And the Mozilla Foundation, which administers the project, reports that Firefox has been downloaded more than 23 million times since its launch in November.
The Yahoo Toolbar Beta for Mozilla Firefox is available for Windows. Versions for MacOS X and Linux are expected soon.