Google Toolbar AutoLinks Addresses To Maps

A new feature in the Google Toolbar takes a street address and converts it to a link to an online map.

Search enging company Google announced some new features for their toolbar, which is available for Internet Explorer and Firefox.

A button on the toolbar labeled AutoLink will look at a web page that contains a US street address and automatically create a link to an online map. The AutoLink feature can work with other data on a web page to automatically make other types of links:

•  Shipper package numbers would link to their delivery status;
•  US Vehicle Identification Numbers (VIN) could be linked to a vehicle’s history report;
•  ISBN numbers for publications would be linked to corresponding listings on Amazon.com.

Google has added a couple of other new functions to the toolbar. A SpellCheck button will verify a user’s spelling in web forms, message boards, email, or any other user-entered content on a web page. SpellCheck also contains an AutoFix function that will correct all the entered text on a page with one click.

And a Word Translator will show a translation for English words by hovering over the word in the text. The toolbar supports the following languages: Chinese (Traditional and Simplified), Japanese, Korean, French, Italian, German and Spanish.

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Email him here.