"Google Updates its Toolbar with New Rating System"

Google recently announced a change to its toolbar
software which includes two new buttons: a happy
face and a frowning face, which users can click on
to rate a webpages as they visit them.

The toolbar is free and only works with Internet
Explorer 5.0 and runs on Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000
or XP. The toolbar helps you find just what you're
looking for online without returning to Google's
homepage to perform new searches. Once installed
on your system it automatically appears under the
Internet Explorer toolbar.

Google's toolbar offers these useful features:

Search Site: This function allows you to search
the site you're using to find exactly what you're
looking for.

Page Rank: Check Google's ranking of any page
you're visiting.

Page Info: Allows you to access more information
about a page including pages that link back to
it and other similar pages. You can also highlight
and find every instance of your search words as
they appear on the page which may be helpful
in your search optimization efforts.

The new voting system that has been added is not
readily apparent after installing it. If you
have Google's old toolbar installed you'll
also need to uninstall it before installing this
beta version.

To get to the new smiley face ranking system to
show up on the bar, you'll need to click on
Google's logo located on the far left
and choose "toolbar options." Scroll down to the
"page information" and put a check mark in the
"voting buttons" box. Save your changes and look
at the bar again. It should now contain a happy
face and a frowning face. These faces allow you
to rate websites as you visit them, in essence
giving them a "thumbs up" or "thumbs down."

So far Google is saying this new voting system is
simply a test, but if they do keep it and start
using it to rank pages on their site it could make
a major impact on search optimization firms and
others who are trying to get a top Google listing.

Sort of reminds me of my elementary school days
and the stickers the teachers would put on my
homework. So what rating is your site going to
get, a happy or a sad face?