Back in October of 2005, Google and Sun made a deal to include Google's toolbar as an option in downloads of Java Runtime. Yesterday, Adobe announced the signing of a multi-year agreement with Google to distribute the Google Toolbar. If you are not excactly sure what is this all about, I'll try to interpret these  news.

Search engines are born equal on the premise of making money by selling advertisements. For example, you are looking for a new thingy. Just type the word "Thingy" in Google  and you'll see the paid advertisement stating that eBay has excactly the right thingy for you on sale.

Do the same thing on Yahoo, and NexTag will be happy to find the bargain for your thingy.

Want Java One? They'll sell it to you in a heartbeat.

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that the search engine companies make money  each time you  click on these ads. Some startup search engines even will even offer  points/awards  for the loyal users.

So, Google wants you to use Google only for 100% of your searches. How to achieve this? Elementary, Watson! By displaying  their little toolbar on each and every popular software product.  Say, you like Adobe's  media shockwave player and use it daily. Keep using this nice product, and you won't even notice this new little search field in the lower right corner of your player. Enjoy playing your video...Need to do a quick search? Your fingers subconciously start typing in this little, skillfully inlayed little search box. You would not even think of opening another search engine' s window. Why bother, the search is at your fingertips!  Simple and smart, as everything Google does.

The next target for Google could be something like AOL messenger. Kids and some adults spend half of their lives there. They need to stick this Google toolbar there, right under?  You move the messenger window and the toolbar naturally moves with the AOL Messenger? Or Yahoo Messenger (oops...did I say something stupid here?).

Here's a free tip for GUI design tool  vendors: tweak your tool a bit to allocate a half-inch band at the bottom of each window that is created by your tool. Some time in the future your application will place the Google toolbar there. It's just a matter of time. By reserving this little real estate in advance, you'll save yourself hours of tedious work on moving the GUI controls around when your boss will ask you to find a room for this little extra toolbar. People purchase real estate on cemeteries in advance, right? Let's enforce the same practice in the GUI design.