As pointed out on Google's Blog, there is a Beta of the newest Google Toolbar available for Windows. This version adds some amazing features such as:
- Custom Buttons that are easily scriptable.
- Bookmarks Handler which centrally stores your bookmarks
- RSS Headline Grabber
- Google suggest for the toolbar
- A really slick Translation feature that works by hovering the mouse over a word
I immediately wanted to add this to Del.icio.us and realized it was the perfect application for the new custom buttons, so I created one... but let me jump ahead a bit. After creating it, I noticed the snazzy install buttons in the Button Gallery and found out how to make those. I then hacked their installer and made that a button itself.
Add XML definition as ToolbarButton
This button allows you to quickly add any button xml Toolbar Button definition file that you are viewing through the browser to be added to your toolbar. Install this using the "Install" button just below, I'll show you how it works in the next section.
Using the very simple Toolbar Button API, I wrote the following definition (link: ToolbarButtonFromDefinition.xml):
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<custombuttons xmlns="http://toolbar.google.com/custombuttons/">
<button>
<site>http://toolbar.google.com/buttons/add?url={url}</site>
<title>Add Toolbar Button</title>
<description>Adds current page as a Google Toolbar button</description>
</button>
</custombuttons>
Clicking the button below will add this button to your toolbar.
Add Custom Button From Definition:
Post To Del.icio.us
To create the Del.icio.us Button, I wrote the following xml definition (link: delicious.xml):
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> <custombuttons xmlns="http://toolbar.google.com/custombuttons/">
<button>
<site> http://del.icio.us/{option1}?v=3&url={url}</site>
<send> http://del.icio.us/{option1}?v=3&url={url}{selection??&title={selection}}</send>
<option>
<description> enter your del.icio.us username</description>
<default />
</option>
<description> post to del.icio.us</description>
<icon type="image/x-icon" mode="base64">Qk32AAAAAAAAAHYAAAAoAAAAEAAAABAAAAABAAQAAAAAAIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAgAAAgAAAAICAAIAAAACAAIAAgIAAAICAgADAwMAAAAD/AAD/AAAA//8A/wAAAP8A/wD//wAA////AAAAAACIiIiIAAAAA
IiIiIgAAAAAiIiIiAAAAACIiIiIAAAAAIiIiIgAAAAAiIiIiAAAAACIiIiIAAAAAIiIiIj/////zMzMzP/////MzMzM/////8z
MzMz/////zMzMzP/////MzMzM/////8zMzMz/////zMzMzP/////MzMzM </icon>
</button>
</custombuttons>
When it installs, it prompts you for your username. This is simply used to create the URL. You will need to log into Del.icio.us yourself and this button will not ask for your password.
There are two ways you can use this button.
- Hit the button on any page and the current page will be passed to Del.icio.us as the URL, leaving the Description blank.
- Select some text on the screen, then hit the button and the text you selected will be pre-filled in the Description, and the URL will be passed as well.
The ToolbarButtonFromDefinition button above can be used to install this by clicking the source link (delicious.xml) and then clicking the ToolbarButtonFromDefinition button in the Toolbar itself. Or you can click the button below instead.
Del.icio.us Custom Button:
Future Expansion
Since this is still Beta, I'm sure there will be a couple things tweaked by the time it reaches final release. I'm excited about using this wherever I can and am very curious to see how others will use it.
Stay tuned, as I come up with new ideas, I will post them here. Sign up for the RSS feed via ToolbarButton:
OurCurrentFuture.com Search/Feed Toolbar Button:
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