Google Toolbar 3.0 beta is an effective, albeit minor, Internet utility update that manages to keep Google in the lead among its main toolbar competitors, Microsoft and Yahoo!. The publicly available beta adds several notable features, including an AutoLink function, a Webform spell-checker, and a word translator.

AutoLink automatically highlights street addresses on a Web page and links them to Google Maps. It didn't always work, however. It consistently choked on street numbers with a dash—linking, for instance to a map of 53 Maiden Lane instead of 30-53 Maiden Lane—and occasionally missed on addresses without a dash. It also works with book ISBN numbers and even vehicle VIN numbers, though with mixed results there too. On one Web page that listed 41 books and their ISBN numbers, AutoLink recognized only 17 of them.

Even if AutoLink worked perfectly, we're not sure everyone would be pleased with it. Some Web designers might balk at software that modifies their pages. Small bookstores on the Web won't appreciate that when AutoLink finds books' ISBN numbers, it automatically links them to Amazon.com, especially when Amazon's prices are lower. AutoLink is a clever idea, but it will be interesting to see how well it plays with the public.

WordTranslator is useful if English isn't your native language. Simply move your cursor over an unfamiliar word and you'll get translation in one of several languages. We tested it in Spanish, and it worked on every word we tried. Unfortunately, it doesn't work in the other direction, which would have been a boon for reading foreign pages.

SpellCheck helped us out when using Web-based e-mail and filling out a technical-support form. It works in ten different languages, and when it finds a suspect word, you can click on the word and get a list of suggestions, or add it to your personal dictionary. This spellchecker isn't necessarily superior to similar tools found in, say, Hotmail, but it does add a few extras; not only does it have a personal dictionary like you'll find in Hotmail, it adds the ability to use it on any Web site.

Older features such as the pop-up blocker and PageRank feature work as well as ever, and Google Toolbar's original function is still its most useful. Having instant access to Google's search engine at all times makes finding information on the Web as easy as breathing. Google Toolbar is also heavily customizable; click on Google > Options on the left side of the toolbar, and a three-tab Options window will pop up, with separate configuration screens for each of the toolbar's main features.

Google Desktop Search is still a separate application, however. MSN Search Toolbar with Windows Desktop Search managed to integrate desktop search fairly seamlessly. Google Desktop Search integrates well with Google Toolbar once you install both of them, and Google's method, unlike MSN Toolbar, actually lets you decide whether you want to install desktop search, something some will consider a benefit. Yahoo!, for its part, brilliantly integrates an antispyware filter into its toolbar. Google should do the same; antispyware tools seem like a natural fit for the browsing experience.

Google Toolbar gives you several nifty shortcuts in addition to its profoundly useful search box. SpellCheck and WordTranslator are important additions, especially if you work with languages other than English. The jury is still out on AutoLink; we'll be following its development closely.

Overall, existing functionality combined with these relatively small, but important, changes solidify Google Toolbar 3.0's (beta) lead. But Google will need to combine more tools and roll out greater innovation if it wants to stay ahead of Yahoo! and MSN.

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